PR 2987 
.112 
Copy 1 



How to Study Shakespeare 



With Articles on General Literature and 
Directions for Forming and 
Conducting Study- 
Circles 



By 



Hamilton Wright Mabie 
Henry Van Dyck 
Francis Hovey Stoddard 
Nicholas Murray Butler 



C. Alphonzo Smith 
Lyman Abbott 
Charles F. Richardson 
Edward Everett Hale 



AND others 



PRICE 50 CENTS 



NEW YORK 

THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY Inc. 

1907 



BC 



THE 
duc( 
resul 
and Comi 
With the ( 
Shakesp 
matter 



ARE 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

COPYRIGHT OFFICE. 

No registration 9J title of this book 
as a preliminary to copyright protec- 
tion has been found. Mc\\ is repro- 

..y p. , :essary by the 

Forwarded to Order Division _ 'MJ.. ?^ MO- - - Critical Notes 

1 on the Plays. 

(Apr. 5, 1901-5,000.) JtP^ uthovity on 

- Explanatory 

ITie Booklovers tlditionTtherefore, rests upon a wider consensus of 



Shakespearean knowledge than any other edition, and can be justly said to be 
the best edition of Shakespeare's works in existence. The set 

is complete in forty volumes. There are thirty -seven plays, a play to a volume ; 
and the three remaining volumes contain respectively the Poems and Sonnets, a Life 
of Shakespeare (with critical estimates by several eminent authorities), and a 
Topical Index. 



SPECIAL FEATURES 



Glossaries 



Each play is followed by its own glossary, which contains the definition of 
every obsolete word in that play. It is a great convenience while readin'^ the 
plays to be able to look up any desired word without referring to a separate volume. 

Critical Notes 

For the most scholarly student, dealing principally with textual criticisms. They 
give the various renderings of the text in question, supplemented by the opinions 
of eminent Shakespearean authorities. 

Explanatory Notes 

Adequate and clear explanations of such portions of the plays as might be 
difficult to understand ; designed for the average reader. Like the Critical Notes, 
these have been carefully selected from the works of prominent writers. 

Critical Comments 

Selections from the works of great Shakespearean scholars; designed to make 
clear the larger meanings of the plays and the nature of the characters. The' 
precede each play and are entirely different from both the Critical and t' 
Elxplanatory Notes. 

Arguments 

Stories of the plays, embodying a more <lefinite description of the plot and 
characters than could be obtained in any other way save by a perusal of the play. 
These arguments are valuable as a pre-review for those who have not read 
Shakespeare and as a concise synopsis for those who have. 

(See third page of this cover for continued description.) 



How to Study Shakespeare 



With Articles on General Literature and 

Directions for Forming and 

Conducting Study 

Circles 



By 



Hamilton Wright Mabie 
Henry Van Dyck 
Francis Hovey Stoddard 
Nicholas Murray Butler 



C. Alphonzo Smith 
Lyman Abbott 
Charles F, Richardson 
Edward Everett Hale 



and others 



fM 



\ 
art. 



NEW YORK 
THE UNIVERSITY SOCIETY Inc. 

1907 



a? 



CONTENTS 



.v^^ 



How TO Study Shakespeare 1 

By Hamilton Wright Mabie 

Why Young Men Should Study Shakespeare . . 11 
By Prof. C. Alonzo Smith 

On Readers and Books 18 

By Henry Van Dyke 

Hints on Reading 22 

By Lyman Abbott 

Forming A Study Circle 27 

By G. J. B. 

The Study of Poetry 40 

By Prof. Francis Hovey Stoddard 

The Study of the Novel 52 

By Prof Francis Hovey Stoddard 

Reading Clubs for Women 64 

By Prof. Chas. F. Richardson 

Five Evidences of an Education 69 

By Nicholas Murray Butler 

How to Read 80 

By Edward Everett Hale 

The Study of English Literature . . . .85 
By Various Authors 

Outlines for the Study of Shakespeare ... 93 

Copyright, 1902, by Thk Univkrsity Society. 



Copyright, 1907, by The University Society Inc. 

Copy ft ^. .At othcm: 

•lAy 14 1910 



HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 



How to Study Shakespeare 

By HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE 

" You might read all the books in the British Museum, if you could 
live long enough, and remain an entirely illiterate, uneducated per- 
son. But if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter— that 
is to say, with real accuracy — you are forevermore, in some measure, 
an educated person." — Ruskin. 

IT is one thing to read and another thing to study; and 
yet reading is the chief means and the best method of 
study when one is trying to understand a writer or a piece 
of literature. The lover of Shakespeare begins by reading 
the plays for pure pleasure and ends by reading them for 
greater pleasure. In the meantime, he may, so to speak, 
have taken them to pieces, examined their construction, 
looked at the words in which they are written with a micro- 
scope, traced their historical connections, gone back to their 
sources. In doing this work of analysis — for it is necessary 
to take a thing to pieces in order to find out how it is put 
together^ — he may become so much interested in the detail 
of the work that he loses sight of Shakespeare altogether 
and becomes a student of language, grammar, the structure 
of style, the evolution of the drama. This is what some- 
times happens to the scholar ; in studying what may be called 
the mechanics of a work of art he loses sight of the art itself. 
To such a student the plays of Shakespeare become a quarry 
out of which great masses of knowledge may be taken. 
This is the study of Shakespeare's language, methods, con- 

1 



2 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 

struction; but it is not the study of Shakespeare ; and it is 
with the study of Shakespeare that this paper concerns itself. 

The best approach to a great book is by the way of simple 
enjoyment. If I am to see the Sistine Madonna for the first 
time I wish, above all things, to give myself up to the pure 
delight of looking at the most beautiful picture ever painted 
by man ; I wish to surrender myself to the great painter and 
let his thought, expressed on the canvas, sink clear and 
deep into my spirit. I wish to keep myself out of sight; 
to postpone analysis, minute study of detail, the critical at- 
titude. First and foremost I want to hear what Raphael has 
to say, and I can best do that by keeping silent myself. 
After I have heard him I can argue with him, criticise him, 
condemn him if I choose ; but I must first hear him to the 
end and without interruption. 

In like manner, if I wish to know Shakespeare, I must 
give him a full, free opportunity of telling me what he thinks 
of life, how he understands it, what it means as its workings 
are revealed in the careers of men and women ; and if I am 
to get any impression of his way of telling his story I must 
surrender myself to him and let him do what he can with 
me. These are the first things I must do; and, if I care 
more for the substance of things than for their peculiarities 
of structure, more for the truth they have to impart than for 
the order of words in which they impart that truth, more for 
the living spirit than for the skeleton in which it is lodged, 
these are the things to which I shall come back when I have 
taken the plays to pieces and examined their mechanism 
with a microscope. The end of art is to deepen the sense of 
life and to give delight and exhilaration ; any kind of study 
which secures these results is good; all kinds which miss 
them are bad. 

To begin with, then, the student of Shakespeare is to 
remember that he is dealing with a great human spirit and 
not with a mass of literary material ; that he is never to lose 
the feeling of reverence which such a spirit inspires; that 
he is handling human documents and not the stuff of which 
grammars and rhetorics are made. To keep the mind open, 



HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 3 

the heart tender, the imagination responsive: these are 
the prime qualities in our friendships for one another, and 
they are the prime quahties in our friendships with the great 
writers. 

This vital study, for the man who wishes to know Shake- 
speare and does not expect to gain an expert's knowledge of 
Shakespeare's works, is a very simple matter. All funda- 
mental ways of dealing with the great realities are simple ; 
it is the tricks of manner, the skill with small details, which 
are abstruse and obscure. To know Shakespeare one needs, 
first of all, a good edition of his works; this means a well- 
printed and well-bound set of his plays and poems, of a size 
that is easy and comfortable to the hand. There are sev- 
eral editions of small size, but printed from large, clear type, 
which have the advantage of fitting into a pocket without 
discomfort. If one has little, or even a great deal of time 
at command it is a matter of prime importance to keep 
Shakespeare within reach ; to be able to put ten or twenty 
minutes into reading '' Hamlet " or '' The Tempest " on a 
train, in a cable car, or while one is waiting at a station. 
Many men have educated themselves by using the odds and 
ends of time which most people waste because they have 
never learned what Mr. Gladstone called *' thrift of time." 

Having become the possessor of a good edition of the 
works, read them through as you would read a novel, giving 
yourself up to the interest of the story. People forget that 
many of the plays were suggested to Shakespeare by the 
stories of his time and of earlier times, and that every one 
of them is a condensed novel. If Shakespeare were not 
placed so high on the shelves as a great classic it is probable 
that more people would read him for simple entertainment; 
for he is one of the most interesting writers in the world. 
Many of the plays carry the reader along without any effort 
on his part; just as ''The Mill on the Floss," "Vanity 
Fair," *' The Tale of Two Cities," and - The Scarlet Let- 
ter " carry him along. Many men have gained their most 
vivid impressions of English history from the historical 
plays, and at least one English statesman has not hesitated 



4 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 

to confess that Shakespeare taught him nearly all the Eng- 
lish history he knew. ^ 

Read the plays, therefore, and re-read them continually : 
for after one is familiar with the story one begins to be in- 
terested in the people, anxious to understand them and to 
know why they think, speak, and act as they do. Great 
books hke f.e men who make them, are many-sided and 
cannot be seen at the first glance; one must approach them 
from different points of view, as one must approach a moun- 
tain If one is to have an adequate idea of its size and shape 
One must read the plays many times before one hears all 
they have to say and sees clearly what Shakespeare is try- 
ing to do; and as one reads he reads with increasing in- 
sight and with more deliberation. He gets first a view of 
the whole scene which Shakespeare spreads before him, and 
then he begins to recognize the number and variety of the 
objects which are grouped together and combined in a whole 
Ihis familiarity is the beginning of intimacy, and so nat- 
urally and inevitably leads on to the best and truest knowl- 
edge that very little suggestion need be made to the man 
who has begun to read the plays frequently and regularly 
because he enjoys them. Have the plays at hand in a con- 
venient form, carry one with you if you are to have any 
leisure moments, cut down the time you give to newspapers ' 
put aside the miscellaneous books you have been in the habit 
of reading or are tempted to read, and study your Shake- 
speare as often and regularly as you can; if you do this 
Shakespeare will meet you more than half way and reveal 
himself to you in ways you will not suspect at the start 

You will not need, at the beginning, any elaborate ap- 
paratus of books of reference. There are many admirable 
books about Shakespeare which you may wish to read and 
to own later, but at the start you will not need them The 
best editions of Shakespeare supply all the information essen- 
tial to the beginner. They contain introductions which tell 
you when each play was written, where the materials were 
found, how each play is related to the other plays, and con 
vey other information which helps you to understand each 



HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 5 

play and put it in its proper place; and they also contain 
notes which explain historical and other references and allu- 
sions, the uses of words, obscure passages, and disputed 
points. Add to a good edition of the plays Mr. Sidney 
Lee's biography, a concordance of the plays, Professor 
Dowden's ''Shakespeare's Mind and Art," and read the 
essays on Shakespeare by Coleridge, Lowell, Bagehot, and 
other standard writers, whose works you will find in the 
libraries, and you have all the machinery of study you need. 
Read, in addition, the history of Shakespeare's age in Eng- 
lish history as it is told in Green's ♦* History of the English 
People." 

The time will probably come when you will desire a 
closer intimacy with the dramatist who has so broadened 
your knowledge of human nature. It will be stimulating, 
too, with one or more friends who are of your mind, to 
begin a more systematic study, which need not demand too 
much time. There are a number of excellent manuals which 
present suggestions for careful and thorough study of the 
plays. 

The following *' Suggestions for Study " are taken from 
the programme of a literary society in New York City, and 
may serve as one example of the kind of guidance needed 
by students in the earlier stages of Shakespearean study. 
This society devoted a number of evenings to the play of 
** Macbeth," and to the special consideration of *'The 
Nature of Poetry. ' ' 

i 
The Tragedy of Macbeth 

Suggestions for Study: Read the whole play carefully, 
then read it a second time. Consider the plot and principal 
characters. Has it a distinct moral purpose ? Has it a his- 
torical basis ? Sources of plot, and incidents. Reasons 
why it is a great drama. What is a drama > a tragedy ? a 
comedy ? Does ' * Macbeth ' ' contain genuine and lofty 
poetry .-* Which is the strongest passage in the play and 
why ? Name some of the character qualities of Lady Mac- 



6 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 

beth. Are Shakespeare's women inferior to his men ? Was 
Macbeth a poet ? What does the knocking at the gate 
typify ? What the sleep-walking scene ? The weird sis- 
ters; why does Shakespeare make them real, instead of in- 
troducing them to Macbeth in a dream ? what do they stand 
for in the play ? Who has the more conscience, Macbeth 
or Lady Macbeth ? What utterances or what actions prove 
it ? How do you explain Macbeth 's hesitancy before the 
murder, and his resolute energy and audacity afterward ? 
What is the clew to the great change in the will power of 
Macbeth ? 

What is the difference between Lady Macbeth and the 
two sisters in "King Lear"? In what does Macbeth's 
punishment consist ? What one word contains it all ? Was 
Macbeth a coward ? If he was a coward how do you ex- 
plain his bravery in battle? If he was not a coward, how 
do you explain his hesitancy and scruples ? What broke 
down Lady Macbeth at the end ? Was it the same cause 
which broke down Macbeth himself? Malcolm and Mac- 
duff: were they cowards in fleeing for their lives ? Did any- 
thing justify Macduff in leaving his fam^ily ? What is there 
essentially significant about the play of " Macbeth," more 
than the obvious truth that * ' murder will out ' ' ? Do you 
regard this as Shakespeare's greatest tragedy ? If so, why ? 
What elements determine the greatness of a play ? 

Required Reading: "Macbeth." 

Suggested Readings: Tennyson's "The Foresters," 
"Hamlet." 

Suggestions for Study : What is poetry ? What are the 
qualities that differentiate it from prose ? What is lyric 
poetry ? Are psalms and hymns l}'ric poetry ? What is the 
meaning of the phrase, "Lyric beauty in Shakespeare's 
plays"? Describe "epic," "lyric," and "dramatic" 
poetry. Define the words ' ' ode, ' ' ' ' sonnet, ' ' and ' ' elegy. 
Is Shakespeare the greatest English dramatist ? Define the 
essential qualities of a great drama. Can love of poetry 
and other literature be acquired ? Elements of great poetry ; 
originality; charm; great subjects greatly treated; correct 



HOW TO STUDY SHEAKSPEARE 7 

poetic construction ; vital ideas coherently worked oat must 
quicken the emotions. Beauty of simple poetry in " Dora ' ' 
and Book of Ruth. No metaphor, figure of speech, or dec- 
orative adjective in ' ^ Dora. ' ' The meaning of iambic 
pentameter, dactyllic hexameter, etc. What is ''Society 
Verse '' ? Is there such a thing as ' ' American ' ' poetry ? 
Characteristics of the poetry of the nineteenth century. The 
spiritual element in poetry. Contemporary and universal 
interest in poetry. Literature of knowledge and literature 
of power; define each. The Bible in Tennyson and other 
poets. Study a poem as a whole, its plan, story, plot, vital 
idea, and larger teaching ; note the meaning of paragraphs, 
sentences, phrases, and the use of words. 

Suggested Readings : A selection of the best short poems 
in the English language. Mr. Edmund Clarence Sted- 
man's " The Nature of Poetry." 

The following example is by Samuel Thurber, Girls' 
High School, Boston, and is taken from Prof. Homer 
Sprague's edition of the " Merchant of Venice. " 

Every good teacher will have methods of his own ; but 
the following suggestions, or some of them, may be of prac- 
tical value to most instructors: 

The poem should be read very hastily, at first, for the 
outline of the story or course of thought. 

Having thus grasped it as a whole, it should again be 
read through; this time with some care for the details of 
the story and course of thought. 

Then the thorough study of each and every part should 
be begun. 

At the beginning of the class exercise, or as often as 
needful, require of the pupil a statement of — (a) The main 
object of the author in the whole poem, oration, play, or 
other production of which to-day's lesson is a part. (<5) 
The object of the author in this particular canto, chapter, 
act, or other division or subdivision of the main 
work. 

Read or recite from memory (or have the pupils do it) 
the finest part or parts of the last lesson. The elocutionary 



8 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 

talent of the class should be utilized here, in order that the 
author may appear at his best. 

Require at times (often enough to keep the whole fresh 
in memory) a resume oi the "argument," story, or succes- 
sion of topics, up to the present lesson. 

Have the student read aloud the sentence, paragraph, 
or lines, now (or previously) assigned. The appointed por- 
tion should have some unity. 

Let the student interpret exactly the meaning by sub- 
stituting his own words; explain peculiarities. This trans- 
lation or paraphrase should often be in writing. 

Let him state the immediate object of the author in these 
lines. Is this object relevant } important } appropriate in 
this place } 

Let him point out the ingredients (particular thoughts) 
that make up the passage. Are they in good taste ^ just } 
natural } well arranged } 

Let him point out other merits or defects — anything 
noteworthy as regards nobleness of principle or sentiment, 
grace, delicacy, beauty, rhythm, sublimity, wit, wisdom, 
humor, naivete, kindliness, pathos, energy, concentrated 
truth, logical force, originality; give allusions, kindred pas- 
sages, principles illustrated, etc. 

From '* Shakespeariana " for January, 1887, we take the 
following character analysis by M. W. Smith: 

Antonio. His intellect. Adapted to business, I, i. 
Prudence blinded by affection, I, i. Deceived by Shylock's 
hypocrisy, I, iii; Practically philosophical, IV, i. His 
moral nature. Generous, III, iii; Good, III, i; Affection- 
ate, I, i; II, -viii; III, ii, iii, iv; IV, i; Sincere, II, viii; 
Frank, I, iii; Magnanimous, III, ii; Honest, III, i; Op- 
posed to usury, I, iii; Melancholy, I, i; IV, i; Patient and 
resigned, IV, i. 

Bassanio. His intellect. Philosophical, III, ii; Good 
executive ability, II, ii; Forethought, II, ii ; Easily de- 
ceived by Shylock, I, iii; A scholar, I, ii. His moral 
nature. Too proud to economize, I, i; Trusts to luck, I, 
i; Takes advantage of friendship, I, i; Frank, II, ii; III, 



HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 9 

ii; Energetic, II, ii; Good at making promises, III, ii; IV, 
i; V, i; Knows how to flatter, V, i; Generous, IV, i; 
Grateful, V, i; Undemonstrative, III, ii. 

Portia. Her personal appearance. In general, I, i; II, 
viii; III, ii; Stature, I, ii; Color of hair, I, i; III, ii. Her 
intellect. Philosophical, I, ii; II, ix; IV, i; V, i; Shrewd in 
reading character, I, ii; Practical, III, ii; Satirical, I, ii; II, 
ix; Humorous, II, ix; IV, ii; V, i; Has good common 
sense. III, ii; Intellect predominates, III, ii. Her moral 
nature. In general, I, i; Extremely obedient. III, ii; 
Frank and unaffected. III, ii; Generally hospitable. III, ii; 
V, i; Generous, III, ii; Undemonstrative, V, i; Has faith 
in good luck, III, ii; Can equivocate. It, i; Somewhat vain, 
V. i; Somewhat silly. III, iv. 

Shylock. His intellect. Philosophical, III, i; IV, i; 
Logical, IV, i; Cool-headed, IV, i; Sharp in business, I, 
iii; Quick at repartee, II, v; IV, i. His moral nature. 
True to his religion, I, iii; IV, i; Patient under persecu- 
tion, I, iii; Sensitive to wrong, I, iii; III, i; Superstitious, 

II, v; Untruthful, I, iii; Ironical, I, iii; Miserly, II, ii; V, 
viii; Extremely avaricious. III, i; IV, i; A good hater, I, 
iii; II, viii; IV, i; Revengeful, I, iii; III, i; II, iii; Mali- 
cious, IV, i; Pitiless, IV, i; Relentless, IV, i; Heartless, 

III, iii; IV, i.— Verify! 

The writer just quoted suggests the following questions 
to evoke criticism : How could Antonio so love a man ? Is 
not going to Shylock to borrow money a defect in Shake- 
speare's art ? Would Shylock make such a confession to 
Antonio (as in Act I, sc. iii) ? Why is the episode of 
Lorenzo and Jessica introduced ? Did Jessica give this ducat 
for the sake of friendship, II, iii ? Is this natural, II, iii, 
14-17? Did Shylock contrive against Antonio's life? 
Why did not Shylock manifest this exultation after line 
33 in scene i of the third act. III, i, 83-89? Does Portia 
do most of the love-making ? Was the bond a legal one ? 
Does the bond say * * nearest his heart ' ' ? What is the con- 
nection between Bassanio and Gratiano, II, ii; III, ii ? 
Why do we believe that Antonio will not be hurt, and that 



10 HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 

Shylock will be defeated in his purpose, III, i ? Is Portia 
correct in her estimate of Antonio, 111, iv ? Does the like- 
ness between persons tend to promote friendship ? Would 
Shylock make such a statement in court as in IV, i, about 
hating Antonio ? Could Portia so completely disguise her- 
self, IV, i ? Is not her decision purely technical, IV, i, 
297, etc. ? Would Shylock say this [the expression of ac- 
quiescence, IV, i, 385, etc.] to save his hfe ? Did Portia 
have large hands, IV, i, 417, etc.? Why is scene ii. Act 
IV, introduced ? Why is Act V usually omitted on the 
stage ? 



HOW TO STUDY SHAKESPEARE 



Why Young Men Should Study 
Shakespeare 

By C. ALPHONSO SMITH 

FOR a Knowledge of History. ' * Men differ from the 
lower animals, in part," says Professor C. C. Everett, 
in his * ' Ethics for Young People, " ' ' because whatever one 
generation gains is passed on to the next, so that each 
starts with some little advantage over the one that went 
before it." But we do not inherit this knowledge; we are 
not born ''heirs of all the ages." Every young man or 
woman who wishes to get the advantage of the generations 
that have gone before and make a fair start with the one 
that is just beginning must study history; for history, in the 
largest sense, is the record of what the race has thought and 
done. And in the realm of history, as both teacher and 
interpreter, it would be hard to overestimate the influence of 
Shakespeare. 

Shakespeare's historical dramas give history in so vital 
and attractive a form that for many readers they have 
usurped the place of text-books of history. Walter Scott, 
the founder of the historical novel, did little more than carry 
on the work begun by Shakespeare, that of popularizing the 
great characters and the leading events of history. So vivid 
is the dramatist's portrayal that the names of C?£sar, Brutus, 
Antony, Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Troilus, Cressida, and others 
are inseparably linked with the name of Shakespeare. 

11 



12 WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 

But in the domain of English history our debt to Shake- 
speare is still greater. "All the English history that I 
know," said the Duke of Marlborough, *'I learned from 
Shakespeare." In Shakespeare's day, Warwickshire, in 
whose borders the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses 
had been fought, was a storehouse of history and legend. A 
wealth of material had been handed down by oral tradition. 
The battle of Bosworth Field was fought only eighty years 
before Shakespeare's birth. Thus the history that he nar- 
rates is the history that he must have heard recounted in his 
youth and early manhood. 

This gives a peculiar value to Shakespeare's English his- 
torical plays, a value that historians are just beginning to 
appreciate. In the preface to ''The Houses of York and 
Lancaster," Mr. James Gairdner says: *' For this period of 
English history we are fortunate in possessing an unrivaled 
interpreter in our great dramatic poet Shakespeare. Fol- 
lowing the guidance of such a master-mind, we realize for 
ourselves the men and actions of the period in a way we 
cannot do in any other epoch. . . . The doings 
of that stormy age, the sad calamities endured by kings, the 
sudden changes of fortune endured by great men, the glitter 
of chivalry, and the horrors of civil war, all left a deep im- 
pression upon the mind of the nation, which was kept alive 
by vivid traditions of the past al the time that our great 
dramatist wrote. ' ' 

Shakespeare's nearness, therefore, in time and place to 
the events that he records — to say nothing of his unrivaled 
powers of insight and presentation — not only gives him an 
advantage over modern historians, but makes him a pecul- 
iarly fitting guide for those who are just entering upon the 
serious study of English history. 

For Maxims of Conduct. ''Three-fourths of our daily 
thought," says Matthew Arnold, " is devoted to questions 
of conduct. In the case of the young, in whom conduct 
has not yet crystallized into matured and unconscious habit, 
the proportion would be nearer four-fifths. ' ' 

To realize the influence of Shakespeare in the direction 



WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 13 

of conduct and in the formation of character one needs only 
to remember that as an English classic Shakespeare ranks 
next to the Bible, Shakespeare and the Bible having long 
since become a current phrase. And one has only to glance 
over a book of Shakespeare quotations, noting the number 
and familiarity of those that interpret or enforce conduct, to 
see that there is sound basis for the popular grouping of 
Shakespeare with so authoritative a book of conduct as the 
English Bible. 

As a guide in conduct Shakespeare is quoted consciously 
and unconsciously by learned and unlearned alike, for his 
dramas are essentially studies in conduct. In these dramas 
personal responsibility is never merged or abjured ; a man 
remains the architect of his own fortunes. The ghosts, 
dreams, and witches occasionally employed by Shakespeare 
do not compel conduct; they only illustrate it. Hamlet 
suspected his uncle before the appearance of his father's 
spirit; Clarence's dream was but the confession of guilt; 
Macbeth was a murderer at heart before he became a prey 
to " supernatural soliciting. " 

When Cassius says, 

" The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. 
But in ourselves, that we are underlings," 

he touches upon one of the central differences between the 
Greek drama and the Elizabethan drama; he suggests also 
the chief reason why Shakespeare has furnished so many 
more maxims of conduct than ^schylus, Sophocles, or 
Euripides. The Greek dramatists portrayed man as evil- 
starred or fortune-starred at birth ; he was a mere puppet in 
the hands of fate. With wider vision and clearer insight 
Shakespeare puts the emphasis not on fate or destiny but on 
character and conduct; not only crimes but venial sins, 
mere errors of judgment, carry within them the seeds of 
their own punishment. It is this fruitful and essentially 
ethical point of view that has stored Shakespeare's pages 
with maxims of daily conduct. It is this that invests his 
characters with so vital a significance for all those who are 



14 WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 

reaching- up into maturity, and who, beginning to feel the 
possibilities of life, wish to probe deeper into its meaning 
and to know the principles of its right conduct. 

For a Better Knowledge of Human Nature. '* All the 
world's a stage," says Shakespeare, and of the men and 
women who play their parts upon it he has not merely 
sketched, but completely individualized two hundred and 
forty-six. In mere number Balzac surpasses Shakespeare; 
but when we consider not only the gross number but the 
variety of types and the clearness and fullness with which 
they are portrayed, Shakespeare takes easy supremacy over 
all other writers, ancient and modern. George Eliot has 
individuaHzed one hundred and seven characters, Dickens 
one hundred and two, and Thackeray forty, their sum total 
being hardly more than equal to Shakespeare's single out- 
put. 

It is a mere truism to say that no one may hope for suc- 
cess in any calling to-day without a knowledge of human 
nature. In many vocations — and these the highest — suc- 
cess is not only conditioned on, but proportioned, to an 
insight into character. No one can expect to become a suc- 
cessful preacher, teacher, doctor, editor, lawyer, or business 
man, who does not have a keen appreciation of the motives 
that govern men in the ordinary affairs of life. Knowledge 
in this domain is power and influence, while ignorance is 
weakness and inefficiency. 

The knowledge of human nature that a young man or 
woman has gained from experience and observation may be 
good as far as it goes; but it is neither wide enough nor 
deep enough, and is purchased in many cases by needless 
errors and heartaches. **The essence of provincialism," 
says Mr. Mabie, in *' Books and Culture," '*is a substitu- 
tion of a part for the whole; the acceptance of the local 
experience, knowledge, and standards as possessing the 
authority of the universal experience, knowledge, and stand- 
ards ; the local experience is entirely true in its own sphere ; 
it becomes misleading when it is accepted as the experience 
of all time and all men." 



WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 15 

For a knowledge of men and women as deep as it is 
wide, for insight into social life as well as individual life, for 
appreciation of the depths to which an over-tempted nature 
may descend or the heights to which, in spite of hostile en- 
vironment, a determined spirit may rise — Shakespeare re- 
mains our supreme teacher. There is no text-book of human 
nature taught in our schools or colleges ; such a text-book 
maybe found in Shakespeare. Three centuries have served 
only to accentuate his preeminence and to enhance his 
authority as a guide through the mazes and inconsistencies 
of our common nature. 

For Training in Expression. It would seem at first 
glance as if blank verse written three hundred years ago 
could help but little to-day in training one to speak and 
write clear and forceful prose. While it is true that Mac- 
aulay, Hawthorne, and Kipling, for example, furnish some- 
thing not found in Shakespeare, it is also true that Shake- 
speare furnishes still more that is not found in them. 

The art of composition is to see clearly and to see whole. 
Whatever be the theme, if the writer or speaker has first 
individualized it, his words will be clear and apt; if he has 
then viewed it in its relations^ whether these be the relations 
of similarity or contrast, of mere analogy or illustration, his 
treatment will be vital and impressive. In these two re- 
spects, the ability to see clearly and to see whole, Shake- 
speare is as yet unrivaled. 

Every character that he has portrayed, every plot that 
he has employed, every incident narrated, every scene de- 
scribed, and every sentence constructed shows that the great 
dramatist had seen before he wrote. He had so communed 
with his characters and so thought through his plots that he 
knew the very lineaments of the one and every possible un- 
folding of the other. Shakespeare's work may have been 
done quickly ; it could not have been done hastily. Thought 
and emotion were held in solution until they precipitated in 
sharp and definite outline. In spite of obsolete words and 
idioms, his style is a model of clearness and vividness; it is 
a series of pictures the study of which is a liberal education 



16 WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 

in that clearness and directness of vision which must precede 
any attempt at clearness of presentation. 

But clearness is not enough. Euclid and Blackstone are 
as clear as Shakespeare. What is the secret of Shake- 
speare's wealth of illustration, analogy, and contrast? May 
the secret be learned.'' The principle at least may be 
learned ; it is the principle followed by every writer or 
speaker who has touched the heart and imagination. Shake- 
speare not only visualized his characters and incidents as 
units in themselves, he saw them as organic parts of a larger 
whole. To see a thing in its entirety one must see it in its 
relations to other things. Every illustration employed by a 
writer or speaker — whether it be drawn from nature, art, his- 
tory, or experience — is the statement of a suggested relation- 
ship and is prompted by this faculty of seeing things in their 
connections. 

To see clearly one must see individually; to see as a 
whole one must see collectively. Both faculties may be 
greatly increased by training; the first demands more of the 
intellect, the second of the imagination ; the one separates, 
the other combines ; the one may be compared to a straight 
line, the other to a surface. And in both, Shakespeare 
offers to young and old alike an inexhaustible store of ma- 
terial for study and practice. At his touch the abstract 
becomes concrete, the ideal real, the remote near, the 
shadowy substantial, the invisible visible. To appreciate his 
style at the very outset of one's career, before vague and 
ineffective methods of expression have become ingrained, 
is to drink at a source of unfailing pleasure and of increas- 
ing power. 

For Culture. "Culture implies growth. It is the un- 
folding of the mind and heart that comes from contact with 
what is best and highest. It means enrichment of character 
and emancipation from what is low and provincial. No one, 
especially if in the impressionable years of early manhood or 
womanhood, can commune with Shakespeare's characters or 
think Shakespeare's tli oughts after him without receiving 
an access of culture Intellect, imagination, and sympathy 



WHY STUDY SHAKESPEARE 17 

are enlarged. The limitations of time and space cease to 
be felt. The reader shares in the fullness of universal truth; 
he feels afresh the depth of Shakespeare's remark that — 

" All places that the eye of Heaven visits 
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens"; 

he assimilates the wit and wisdom and beauty of a race that 
was already *'in the foremost files of time" when Shake- 
speare became its spokesman ; he sees new meanings in life, 
feels a new awe in its mysteries, a new depth even in its 
homelier aspects, and a new stimulus in its possibilities. 
Old things seem new to him by the novelty of their presen- 
tation, and new things seem old because of the force and 
directness with which they are brought home to his con- 
sciousness. Insensibly he ceases to admire what is crude, 
shallow, fragmentary, and inartistic ; and grows into appre- 
ciation of what is true, vital, whole, and harmonious. He 
is made to realize, that life is more than thought, and that 
sympathy and imagination have a depth and richness be- 
yond the reach of intellect and learning. 

But culture is not only growth through ideas and feel- 
ings; it is growth through will and service. Shakespeare 
portrays men not in isolated but in close relation to the so- 
ciety about them. He viewed them, as we have seen, not 
only as individuals, but as social factors. The most fruitful 
lesson to be learned from Shakespeare is culture as social 
service, a lesson incomparably phrased in the dramatist's 
own words: 

" Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 
Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
As if we had thern not. Spirits are not finely touched 
But to fine issues." 



HOW TO READ 



On Readers and Books 

By HENRY VAN DYKE 

THERE are readers and readers. For purposes of con- 
venience they may be divided into three classes. 

First, there is the " simple reader " — the ordinary book- 
consumer of commerce. He reads without any particular 
purpose or intention, chiefly in order to occupy his spare 
time. He has formed the habit and it pleases him. He 
does not know much about literature, but he says he knows 
what he likes. All is fish that comes to his net. Curiosity 
and fashion play a large part in directing his reading. He 
is an easy prey for the loud-advertising bookseller. He 
seldom reads a book the second time, except when he for- 
gets that he has read it before. For a reader in this stage 
of evolution the most valuable advice (if, indeed, any coun- 
sel may be effectual) is chiefly of a negative character. Do 
not read vulgar books, silly books, morbid books. Do not 
read books that are written in bad English. Do not read 
books simply because other people are reading them. Do 
not read more than five new books to one old one. 

Next comes the '' intelligent reader " — the person who 
wants to know, and to whom books are valuable chiefly for 
the accuracy of the information which they convey. He 
reads with the definite purpose of increasing his acquaintance 
with facts. Memory is his most valuable faculty. He is 
ardent in the following of certain lines of investigation; he 
is apt to have a specialty, and to think highly of its impor- 

18 



ON READERS AND BOOKS 19 

tance. He is inclined to take notes and to make analyses. 
This particular reader is the one to whom lists of books and 
courses of reading are most useful. Miss Repplier makes 
light of them as ''Cook's Tours in Literature," but the 
reader whose main interest is the increase of knowledge is 
often very glad to be " personally conducted ' ' through a 
new region of books. 

Last comes the '' gentle reader " — the person who wants 
to grow, and who turns to books as a means of purifying 
his tastes, deepening his feelings, broadening his sympa- 
thies, and enhancing his joy in life. Literature he loves 
because it is the most humane of the arts. Its forms and 
processes interest him as expressions of the human striving 
towards clearness of thought, purity of emotion, and har- 
mony of action with the ideal. The culture of a finer, fuller 
manhood is what this reader seeks. He is looking for the 
books in which the inner meanings of nature and life are 
translated into language of distinction and charm, touched 
with the human personality of the author, and embodied in 
forms of permanent interest and power. This is literature. 
And the reader who sets his affections on these things enters 
the world of books as one made free of a city of wonders, a 
garden of fair delights. He reads not from a sense of duty, 
not from a constraint of fashion, not from an ambition of 
learning, but from a thirst of pleasure, because he feels that 
pleasure of the highest kind — a real joy in the perception of 
things lucid, luminous, symmetrical, musical, sincere, pas- 
sionate, and profound — such pleasure restores the heart and 
quickens it, makes it stronger to endure the ills of life, and 
more fertile in all good fruits of cheerfulness, courage, and 
love. This reader for vital pleasure has less need of maps 
and directories, rules, and instructions, than of companion- 
ship. A criticism that will go with him in his reading, and 
open up new meaning in familiar things, and touch the 
secrets of beauty and power, and reveal the hidden relations 
of literature to life, and help him to see the reasonableness 
of every true grace of style, the sincerity of every real force 
of passion — a criticism that penetrates, illuminates, and 



20 ON READERS AND BOOKS 

appreciates, making the eyes clearer and the heart more 
sensitive to perceive the Hving spirit in good books — that is 
the companionship which will be most helpful and most 
grateful to the gentle reader. 

Whichever class of readers we may belong to (and I, for 
one, decline to commit myself), we can all find something 
to please and profit us. All can unite in prayers for the 
simple reader, that he may not spend his last dollar for the 
435,999th copy of the newest popular book, but expend his 
money more wisely in the purchase of — What? 

Here is a real difficulty. The variety of opinions among 
guides and instructors seems to me a most cheerful and en- 
couraging fact. Doubtless each has a good reason to give 
for his preferences. Doubtless there are treasures to be found 
in various regions of literature — not a solitary pot of gold 
hidden in a single field, and a terrible chance that we may 
not happen to buy the right lot — but veins of rich ore run- 
ning through all the rocks, and placers in all the gravel beds. 
Doubtless we may follow any one of a half dozen roads and 
not go far astray after all. 

Let us not take our reading too anxiously, too strenu- 
ously. There are more than a hundred good books in the 
world. The best hundred for you may not be the best hun- 
dred for me. We ought to be satisfied if we get something 
thoroughly good, even though it be not absolutely and un- 
questionably the best in the world. The habit of worrying 
about the books that we have not read, destroys the pleasure 
and diminishes the profit of those that we are reading. Be 
serious, earnest, sincere in your choice of books, and then 
put your trust in Providence and read with an easy mind. 

Any author who has kept the affection, interest, and 
confidence of thoughtful, honest readers through at least one 
generation is fairly sure to have something in him that is 
worth reading. 

Let us keep out of provincialism in literature — even that 
which comes from Athens. 

You like Tolstoi and George Eliot; I like Scott and 
Thackeray, You like Byron and Shelley; I like Words- 



ON READERS AND BOOKS 21 

worth and Tennyson. You admire the method of Stubbs 
and Seignobos ; I still find pleasure in Macaulay and Carlyle. 
Well, probably neither of us is altogether wasting time. 
Jordan is a good river. But there is also plenty of water in 
the streams cf Abana and Pharpar. 

There is a large number of courses of reading that any 
one of us might take with profit. It is foolish to stand too 
long hesitating at the cross-roads. Choose your course with 
open eyes and follow it with a cheerful heart. And take 
with you a few plain maxims drawn from experience. 

Read the preface first. It was probably written last. 
But the author put it at the beginning because he wanted to 
say something particular to you before you entered the book. 
Go in through the front door. 

Read plenty of books about people and things, but not 
too many books about books. Literature is not to be taken 
in emulsion. The only way to know a great author is to 
read his works for yourself. That will give you knowledge 
at first-hand. 

Read one book at a time, but never one book alone. 
Well-worn books always have relatives. Follow them up. 
Learn something about the family if you want to understand 
the individual. If you have been reading the ' ' Idylls of the 
King " go back to Sir Thomas Malory; if you have been 
keeping company with Stevenson, travel for a while with 
Scott, Dumas, and Defoe. 

Read the old books — those that have stood the test of 
time. Read them slowly, carefully, thoroughly. They 
will help you to discriminate among the new ones. 

Read no book with which the author has not taken 
pains enough to write it in a clean, sound, lucid style. Life 
is short. If he thought so little of his work that he left it 
in the rough, it is not likely to be worth your pains in read- 
ing it. 

Read over again the best ten books that you have already 
read. The result of this experiment will test your taste, 
measure your advance, and fit you for progress in the art 
of reading. 



WHY TO READ 



Hints for People that do not Read 

By LYMAN ABBOTT 

YOUR time is limited; your books are few. There is 
work in the kitchen, in the parlor, in the office de- 
manding your attention ; clients to be pacified or provoked, 
patients to be cured or killed, goods to be bought and sold, 
children to be tended, furniture to be dusted, table to be set 
and table to be cleared away again ; and for a library the 
family Bible, Webster's Dictionary, the well-thumbed and 
oft-read books in the sitting room, and the genteel and gilt- 
edged poetry in the parlor, with a limited purse from which 
to replenish the exhausted library, and limited time with 
which to use it if it were replenished. This is no fancy 
sketch, but a photograph of many an American life. How 
find time, how find means for study in such circumstances, 
is the problem of many a would-be student who lays down 
his intellectual life in despair; who in the first twenty years 
of his life gets an appetite for learning and in the other forty 
starves to death. Especially is this true of wives and moth- 
ers. How shall a would-be student so situated pursue sys- 
tematic reading and study? 

America gives a library to almost every home, in the 
periodical publications — the daily journal, the weekly paper, 
and the monthly magazine. Study the newspaper; if pos- 
sible, study it with cyclopedia, with atlas, with gazetteer; 
but study it. Waste no time on the shameful scandals, the 
bitter political controversies, the ecclesiastical broadsword 

22 



HINTS FOR PEOPLE THAT DO NOT READ 23 

exercises, and the idle paragraph gossip. A war of words 
is no more dignified in a journal than on the street; gossip 
is no worthier your attention because printed by ^/le daily 
tattler than when whispered by a daily tattler. There is no 
more fascinating intellectual occupation than watching the 
course of contemporaneous history. The denouements of 
Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade are nothing to those of 
life's actual drama. The romance of fiction is inane by the 
side of the romance of facts, and the newspaper is where 
they are recorded. In this study the monthly periodical 
will aid you. The world has never known such storehouses 
of well-selected mental food as are furnished by the maga- 
zines. The ablest writers of America are laid under con- 
tribution. The ablest artists are called on to add both the 
attractions and illuminations of the pencil. 

But to the journal — weekly or daily — and the magazine 
you will want to add some study of books. Periodical read- 
ing may become desultory reading. It need not, but there 
is always danger. For courses of study in books observe 
three rules : 

(i) Begin with what is congenial. Choose not what you 
ought to know but what you want to know. It is a rare 
mind that can keep itself to a course of distasteful study. 
It is not safe for any one to assume, without proof, that he 
has a rare mind. 

(2) Begin with a short course. Do not lay out, for his- 
tory, Hume, Macaulay, and Miss Martineau, with the idea 
that when you have finished these fifteen volumes you will 
be well versed in English history. That is very true ; but 
you will never finish them. Read Jacob Abbott's " Life of 
Charles I." or 'TL," or Macaulay's Lord Chatham, or Temple, 
or Thomas Hughes' ''Alfred the Great.*' One thing at a 
time ; and that thing short and simple. Putting the word 
done opposite a purpose is a wonderful incentive to a large 
achievement in the next attempt. 

(3) Buy a dictionary, an atlas, and, if possible, a cyclo- 
pedia. If you have not the money make over an old bon- 
net. No harm will be done if it cultivates a habit of making 



24 HINTS FOR PEOPLE THAT DO NOT READ 

over old bonnets. If a man, dispense with cigars for a year. 
No harm will be done if this cultivates a habit of dispensing 
with cigars. If this does not supply the increasing demand 
for increasing facilities try some other economies. I visited 
not long since the home of one of the most eminent of 
America's younger astronomers. He lived in a little box 
of a house, in an out-of-the-way street, with not an easy- 
chair in the house. But his wife had a fine piano, and he a 
microscope that cost him $300. Equipped with dictionary 
and atlas, never pass a word the meaning of which you do 
not know ; the name of a place the location of which you 
have not fixed ; or reference to an event which you do not 
comprehend. In invading a new territory never leave an 
unconquered garrison behind you. 

Theme and tools selected, it still remains to secure time. 
For the best advantage this should be regular, systematic, 
uninterrupted. The early hours are the best; when the 
brain is fresh and the mind alert. To the mind and body 
trained for it, half an hour before breakfast is worth an hour 
and a half after supper. But this requires an opportunity to 
shut out intrusion which perhaps the housekeeper cannot 
secure ; facility to shut out the more subtle intrusion of a thick 
on-coming crowd of cares, which only a stalwart power of 
concentration can secure. Some cannot lock the door of 
the library; others cannot lock the door of the mind. But 
if time cannot be taken at one hour seize it from another; if 
it cannot be taken with regularity take it when chance offers. 
The blacksmith's forge is not a convenient desk; but it was 
at the blacksmith's forge, blowing the bellows with one 
hand and holding a book with the other, that Elihu Burritt 
learned his first languages. The nursery is not the place 
one would choose for astronomical calculations; but it was 
in the nursery, beset by her children, whom she never neg- 
lected, and interrupted by callers, whom she rarely refused, 
that Mary Somerville wrought out her *' Mechanism of the 
Heavens," which elected her an honorary member of the 
Royal Astronomical Society, and put her in the first rank of 
the scientists of her day. Where there is a will there is a 



HINTS FOR PEOPLE THAT DO NOT READ 25 

way. He or she that can find no time for study has little 
real heart for it. 

The home ought no more to be without a library than 
without a dining room and kitchen. If you have but one 
room, and it is lighted by the great wood fire in the flaming 
fireplace, as Abraham Lincoln's was, do as Abraham Lincoln 
did ; pick out one corner of your fireplace for a library, and 
use it. Every man ought to provide for the brain as well 
as for the stomach. This does not require capital ; there 
are cheap editions of the best books ; it only requires time 
and forecast. We write in a private library, and a fairly 
good one for working purposes, of three thousand and odd 
volumes; we began it many years ago, on a salary of 
$i,ooo a year, with five books — a commentary in four vol- 
umes and a dictionary. The best libraries are not made; 
they grow. 

In forming a library, if your means are small, do not 
buy what you can beg or borrow. Depend, as many of the 
greatest authors have done, on public libraries — the District 
Library, the Lyceum, the Book Club, the Circulating 
Library — or on more fortunate friends. Buy only what you 
cannot borrow. 

At first buy only books that you want immediately to 
read. Do not be deluded into buying books because they 
are classics, or cheap, or that you may get rid of an agent. 
One book read is worth a dozen books looked at. No 
book is possessed till it is read. Reference books constitute 
an exception, and an important exception, to this rule. 
These are the foundations of a good library. The essential 
reference books are a dictionary, a good atlas, and a cyclo- 
pedia. Any school atlas will do though, if you are able to 
purchase it, a good atlas is much better; and best of all is 
a wise selection of atlases. There is no best cyclopedia; 
your choice must depend upon your resources, pecuniary 
and mental. 

In purchasing books exercise a choice in editions. The 
lowest-priced books are not always the cheapest. Buy 
books of transient interest or minor importance — all novels, 



26 HINTS FOR PEOPLE THAT DO NOT READ 

for example, and current books of travel — in cheap forms. 
On the other hand, histories, classics of all sorts, and gen- 
erally all permanent books, should be bought in good bind- 
ing and good type. It takes well-seasoned lumber to make 
a good family library. 

Have a place for your -library. A dollar spent in pine 
lumber, and a little mechanical skill, will make a larger and 
better one. Varnished pine is handsome enough for any 
parlor. A place for books will cry to be filled till it gets 
its prayer answered. Book shelves preserve books. One 
shelf of books gathered together is a better library than 
twice the number scattered from attic to cellar. 

Finally, a taste for reading is an essential prerequisite to 
a useful library. A well is of no use if you never draw 
water from it. At the same time a good library in the 
household, accessible to all, from baby to grandmother, is 
one of the best influences with which to develop a taste for 
reading. Have no books so fine that they cannot be used. 



HOW TO STUDY 



Forming a Study Circle 

By GEORGE J. BRYAN 

IN the multitude of books there is wisdom indeed, but wis- 
dom obscured by their multiplicity. The problem for 
busy people, eager to increase their acquaintance with litera- 
ture, is to find out, first, which are the accepted best books, 
and, second, which are the best books for our particular 
needs. A general knowledge of the accepted best books is 
essential if we aspire to the level of culture which marks the 
man and woman of the world, the standard of what our 
fathers termed polite society, rather than that of the literary 
profession. 

There are many lists of " best books," each excellent of 
its kind yet all open to modification from the individual point 
of view. Peruse them all and it will be found that there are 
from a hundred down to a select group of twenty or so, 
which are universally held to be books that are necessary to 
a well-rounded, rather than a profound, literary culture. Of 
these a few will, by their own fascination, allure us to use 
them as life companions. Others will prove so serviceable 
in various ways that our reading of them will deepen into 
pleasing study. Again, others will commend themselves as 
being invaluable as keys to storehouses of inexhaustible 
treasures of book lore, of character insight, of world 
knowledge, of profitable entertainment. Each must make 
his own choice of what are the best books for his individual 
case, governed by his tastes and circumstances, but he will 

27 



28 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 

scarcely be in a position to decide on the best books for 
himself until he has fairly read those which the general ver- 
dict has pronounced supreme. 

Having- made our selection comprehensively the ques- 
tions arise, Where shall I begin ? What books shall I read ? 
How shall I read them ? 

To the young man and young woman these questions 
are more important than are the transient questions of Im- 
perialism or Municipal Ownership of Franchises. Did you 
ever ask them ? Did you ever receive an intelligent and sat- 
isfactory answer ? Are you desirous of obtaining light on 
these subjects ? If you are, it will at least prove a very in- 
teresting story, and probably a most profitable and helpful 
exercise, to read the following account of the work done by 
a Study Circle, on a method designed to give a thorough, 
if necessarily an incomplete, answer to the above questions. 

Intelligent young men and maidens who have finished 
their school education — clerks, mechanics, stenographers, 
teachers, publishers, and preachers — often grow weary of 
the trivialities of ordinary reading and ordinary society, and 
long for progress in the direction of genuine self-culture and 
self-improvement. They know that the truest culture comes 
from wisely reading the best books. But who shall name 
the best books for them, and who shall show them how to 
read wisely and well ? 

The thoughtful young man knows — though he may know 
it dimly — that there is satisfaction and exhilaration and glory 
in thinking new and lofty thoughts. He has splendid and 
inspiring visions of communion, through books, with the 
master-spirits who have created literature worthy of the 
name. But he meets with difficulties at the very beginning 
of his quest. He asks: "What books should I read first, 
and what next in order .? " '' How can I acquire a taste for 
the highest and best kinds of literature.?" But the wise and 
satisfactory answers to these questions are long in coming. 

The sensible young woman who reads only the lighter 
and the trashier books knows that she is reading herself 
down instead of up. She knows — or ought to know — that 



FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 29 

the trashy literature in which she dehghts points its votaries 
in the direction of frivohty of thought, weakness of feeling, 
and irresoluteness of purpose. In her truer and loftier mo- 
ments she longs for an acquaintance with those writers who 
would elevate her taste, inspire the purest and tenderest 
emotions and confirm good and noble principles. 

An Object Lesson in Reading 

The Circle referred to is the literary department of the 
Epworth League in connection with Sumner Avenue Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, Brooklyn. A recent Syllabus con- 
tains features that invite the attention of persons contemplat- 
ing a systematic study of general or special literature. It is 
quoted liberally here as showing the actual working of a 
plan which has been exceptionally successful in its practical 
results and in holding the interest of its members. The 
conductors of th€ department announce their intention to 
answer the questions stated above. 

*' We have selected a series of good novels, essays, and 
poems for study. We have tried to illustrate, by sugges- 
tions and questions, correct methods of reading. We ear- 
nestly desire to assist you in an effort to secure self-culture 
through the judicious reading of good books. We trust that 
these studies may help you to find more pleasure in litera- 
ture — to discover more than ever before that it gives 
strength to the mind and truth to the heart. 

*' The Syllabus and the accompanying description pro- 
vide a plan for the formation of circles or societies, the object 
of which shall be to begin and pursue the serious study of 
literature, its nature and significance in human life and edu- 
cation. It is distinct from any of the courses of study now 
used in church 'young peoples' societies' orMeagues.' 
It may be used either to supplement or to supersede them. 
Its object is the study of pure and genuine literature, not 
the study of science or history, except as they are related 
to literature. The committee believe the course has been 
wisely arranged to the end that all working members will 



30 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 

obtain a broader knowledge of, and a truer love for, pure 
literature. 

* ' This year three typical forms of English literature will 
be studied — the Essay, the Novel, and the Poem. 

" The course provides for studies reaching over thirty- 
two weeks, and arranges for sixteen meetings of the Circle. 
Six evenings are devoted to novels, five to poetry, and five 
to essays. Under each of these general divisions are given 
reading lists, topics for special study and suggestive ques- 
tions. The work to be done by the members consists of 
home reading, writing essays, and taking part in the discus- 
sions at the meetings of the Circle. Each member should 
do the required reading, and should come to the meetings 
with suggestions, helpful thoughts, questions, and quotations. 

" The Syllabus, or outline of study, is particularly full of 
suggestions and directions. It contains not only a general 
outline of the entire course, but also an abundance of topics 
for special investigation. It ' blazes the way ' to wide read- 
ing and serious thought. Long before the first meeting in 
October the Syllabus should be read and re-read by each 
member. The suggestions for study are neither too easy 
nor too difficult. Not all of them apply directly to the sub- 
jects under which they appear. They are partly designed 
to bring to the attention of the members, and into the dis- 
cussions, many important thoughts on general literature. 
They are intended to help in teaching the best method of 
studying a Novel, an Essay, or a Poem. 

'* It is by carefully and attentively reading a few well- 
chosen books that we make progress in the direction of true 
culture. To make the reading of a book most profitable, 
we should have some object in view — the writing of an essay 
on the book, or discussing it with some friend, or taking 
part in a debate on it in a Study Circle. Most of us, before 
we can read a good novel or a great poem in such a manner 
as to make it the means of the greatest self-improvement, 
need to be wisely directed and guided. These truths have 
been constantly in the minds of the Committee which pre- 
pared this Syllabus. 



FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 31 

Books that are Books 

* * Our system provides for the study of genuine literature. 
Some courses of instruction with which the writer is famihar 
provide for studies about or concerning Hterature. We be- 
lieve that the best way to study literature is to study litera- 
ture. We believe that a great poem like ' The Deserted 
Village ' or * Locksley Hall ' is just as interesting to a 
healthy mind as is alleged poetry of the. base and trivial 
sort, and that great novels like ' A Tale of Two Cities ' or 

* Jane Eyre ' can be made as interesting to the average 
young person as the ephemeral novels of the day which are 
now selling by the hundred thousand, but which will be en- 
tirely forgotten in a dozen years. And so 've attempt a 
serious and earnest study of enduring literature — of great 
masterpieces — not masterpieces that might be considered 
'too good for human nature's daily food' — but such as 
'Vanity Fair,' 'The Idylls of the King,' 'Macbeth,' and 

* Kenilworth.' 

Literature and More 

"The basis of our work is literary masterpieces. On 
this foundation we build a course of study that includes some 
history, politics, sociology, theology, literary criticism, and 
many other things. Thus, in connection with our study of 
' Elsie Venner, ' the physician of our Circle reads an essay 
on Heredity. When our subject is ' The Biglow Papers, ' 
we read and discuss the history of the Mexican and Civil 
Wars. The evening with Kingsley and ' Hypatia ' will show 
that our members have not only studied the author and the 
book, but also the period and place in which the scene of 
the story is laid. Thus we study literature both as an out- 
growth and as an exponent of life — personal, social, and 
national. 

' ' The course for the present year has been carefully 
arranged for those who have but little time for study, as 
well as for those of ample leisure and studious habits. To 



32 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 

do the ' required reading ' will take, on an average, thirty or 
forty minutes daily. This much should be done by every 
member of the Circle. Those who have time and inclina- 
tion will find that the ' suggested readings ' and the ' study 
hints ' point the way to the use of two hours or more daily, 
in earnest reading and research. 

" To secure the best results from the course of study for 
the present year, every member of the Circle should own 
the books which constitute the required readings. [Their 
names and prices are given.] We believe they have been 
wisely selected, not only on account of the high quality of 
the literature they contain, but also because they can all be 
obtained in inexpensive editions. 

* ' The Syllabus gives a list of * required ' or necessary 
readings. The study of these selections, as stated elsewhere, 
will take only about thirty or forty minutes daily. All of 
them should be read by each member. The ' Suggested ' 
readings broaden the field of study and research, but do not 
lead away from the general plan. They map out a broad 
course of interesting study in harmony with the ' Required ' 
readings and the ' Hints for Study. * 

Aids to Sound Reading 

** Very few young people, and not many of any age, 
know the best and most approved methods of reading a 
poem, a novel, or an essay. Most reading is careless and 
desultory. Our Study Circle attempts to teach correct 
methods of reading masterpieces of literature. The carefully 
prepared Study Suggestions for each evening excite the 
spirit of investigation and point the way to proper methods 
of study. They have been arranged by those who recog- 
nize that the proper study of a poem, an essay, or a novel, 
should be broad and general as well as specific and minute. 

' ' Some wise members of our Circle have methods of 
keeping clippings and memoranda of thoughts pertaining 
to the meetings, or to each subject or author studied. One, 
at least, uses a series of large common envelopes for the 



FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 33 

preservation of these notes. If, at the beginning of the sea- 
son, one masters and memorizes a general outHne of the 
course, it will be found that many ideas, many bits of in- 
formation, pertaining to the subjects studied, will constantly 
be found in miscellaneous reading and general conversation. 

Importance of Good Leaders 

*' The success of this course of study largely depends upon 
the efficiency of the leader or leaders. Each leader should 
become especially familiar with the subjects for the particu- 
lar evenings of which he has charge. His preparation should 
cover all the required readings and all the suggested topics 
for study; it should go still further and enable him to sug- 
gest other topics. His research and thought should have 
been so broad that he will be able to grasp — and grasp 
quickly — any question, suggestion, or statement of fact, in 
harmony with the subject of the evening, that comes from 
the Circle. He should personally answer but few questions. 
His success is to be measured partly by his ability to guide 
and control the discussions, giving to the Circle full op- 
portunity to answer questions or amplify suggestions. He 
should be an autocrat in his peculiar field, allowing no 
member to talk too long, and firmly stopping the discussion 
of a subject whenever he deems the fit moment to have 
arrived. It may be necessary for him to repress the over- 
talkative, as it will surely be his duty and pleasure to en- 
courage the modest to take part in the debates. If he has 
any reason to believe that a sufficient number of the Circle 
will not prepare to take intelligent part in the discussion, he 
should, in advance, assign some of the suggested topics to 
other members, and ask for their special study of those top- 
ics along certain lines indicated. A poor leader may not 
spoil a good Circle ; but a good leader is a most important 
force for inspiration and efficiency. Leaders should see 
that discussions do not degenerate into trivialities or plati- 
tudes, or wander far away from the subject of the evening. 
Any leader who finds it necessary to be absent from a meet- 
ing should provide a substitute. 



34 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 

"In order to render a study Circle ideally efficient, pro- 
vision should be made for one leader for the entire course. 
It is seldom, however, that any one member can give the 
time necessary to assume the leadership of every meeting. 
We therefore recommend that for the present year there be 
three leaders appointed — one for poetry, one for essays, and 
one for the study of the novel. Each one should commence 
his special preparation one or two months before the date 
of the first meeting of which he is to take charge. We be- 
lieve that in every church of considerable size competent 
leaders can be found. Often the ^ elect ' person is a woman ; 
and frequently it is some one who is not a college graduate. 
It is strange how few of our college-bred men or women 
have a genuine love for good literature. 

** Every Circle should have a president, a secretary, and 
a treasurer. The duties of the president are obvious — the 
calling of meetings to order, conferring with the leaders, 
and presiding in the absence of the regular leader unless 
other arrangements have been made. One person should 
act as both secretary and treasurer. He should keep in 
touch with the writers of essays, and should secure a substi- 
tute in case a regularly appointed essayist fails to respond. 
He should have charge of the funds of the Circle — not 
usually a burdensome task. At the last Social of the sea- 
son, in June, the secretary should read a paper on the study 
of the year. At regular meetings no minutes are read. 

General Suggestions 

** Experience has clearly demonstrated the advisability of 
having two essays read at each meeting. Both should be 
on kindred, related topics. For example, a biographical 
estimate of Tennyson may well be followed by a paper on 
'The Idylls of the King.' These essays should be from 
fifteen to twenty-five minutes (usually not more than twenty 
minutes) in length. They should be carefully prepared a 
sufficient length of time before the date of the meeting at 
which they are to be read, to become seasoned. Being thus 



FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 35 

made ready in advance, they can be read by the secretary 
or some other member, in case of the absence of the writer. 

* ' We believe that a well-conducted Study Circle should 
hold two meetings each month, and that the sessions should 
begin promptly at eight o'clock, and close promptly at ten. 
It is proposed to hold our meetings on the second and fourth 
Tuesdays of each month. Soon after the meeting is called 
to order the first essay should be read, and this should be 
followed by a discussion of some forty minutes' duration. 
With or without an intermission of five minutes the second 
essay should be read, and a discussion or conversazione of 
forty minutes would then bring the meeting to a close. The 
best place to hold all meetings, including the ' Social, ' is in 
the church parlor, or in some other suitable room in the 
church edifice. It should be understood that the meetings 
are not public, and that only members should regularly be 
permitted to attend. Occasional visitors, however, should 
be made welcome. 

' ' The annual dues of members should be about fifty cents 
each, depending somewhat upon the size of the Circle. 
Money is necessary to defray the cost of the Syllabus or out- 
line of study, to furnish refreshments at * Socials,' and to pay 
small incidental expenses. 

' ' ' We have deemed it advisable to have two or three 
* Socials ' during the season. Light refreshments should be 
served, and an Entertainment Committee should provide for 
games, recitations, or singing. A query box (or hat) in 
which may be deposited questions, suggestions, or com- 
ments, may be a feature of the * Socials. ' Bright men and 
women, drawn together by the desire to study genuine lit- 
erature, will find that the exercises and conversation of their 
social evenings become more and more serious, earnest, and 
thoughtful." 

The Novel 

Here follow examples of the method in which the Novel, 
the Essay, and the Poem were studied. 

* ' Some Thoughts on Novels and Novel- writing. ' ' Sug- 



36 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 

gestions for Study: Some best methods of novel reading and 
study. How can you distinguish between novels of charac- 
ter and novels of incident ? Consider the various classes of 
fiction, as novels of sentiment, satire, life, and manners. 
The historical novel. Are the best novels ''feigned his- 
tory " ? In what sense is a well-written novel a biography.? 
What class of novels are bad morally ? Should novelists 
depict scenes of vice and moral degradation ? Meaning of 
*' decadent " novels ? Difference between ** moral," '' im- 
moral, ' ' and ' ' unmoral ' ' books ? Mention a few great 
novels containing critical and philosophical reflections in- 
termingled with pure fiction ; do you prefer them to novels of 
incident and thrilling situations ? Do the words '* fiction,'^ 
** romance, " and ''novel," mean the same ? 

Suggested Readings: Encyclopedic articles on "Novel," 
"Fiction," and "Romance." See Poole's Index to Peri- 
odical Literature. 

" 'Jane Eyre ' and the Novel of Sentiment." Sugges- 
tions for Study: Life of Charlotte Bronte. Her rank as a 
novelist; perception of character; lack of restraint; lack of 
humor. Is "Jane Eyre" autobiographical? In what re- 
spect does this novel mark a decided advance in the develop- 
ment of the novel ? What is its attitude toward the social 
system of the day ? Point out in what respect it was con- 
sidered immoral. Would it be so considered to-day ? Does 
it shadow forth a prophecy of " woman's rights " ? What 
new and radical truth became a part of the social life of to- 
day ? What is the greatest moral teaching of the book, as 
given in a short passage } Consider the purity, loveliness, 
and redeeming power of true love as depicted in novels. 
How may novel-reading become injurious? What propor- 
tion of our reading should novels be allowed ? What is 
meant by "knowledge " literature and "power " literature.? 
Is it better to read the great novels of many authors or all 
the novels of a few great authors ? 

Required Reading: "Jane Eyre." 

Suggested Reading: Life of Charlotte Bronte. 



FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 37 

Poetry 

'* Some Thoughts on Poetry." Suggestions for Study: 
Elements of great poetry, originality, and perpetual charm ; 
great subject greatly treated; correct poetic construction; 
vital idea coherently worked out; must quicken the emo- 
tions. Beauty of simple poetry in ''Dora" and Book of 
Ruth. No metaphor, figure of speech, or decorative adjec- 
tive in '*Dora." The meaning of iambic pentameter, dac- 
tyllic hexameter, etc. What is " Society Verse "? Name 
the ten greatest poets of all ages. Have all great poets 
believed in immortality.^ Is there such a thing as '* Ameri- 
can " poetry.? The poetry which delights and sustains. 
Characteristics of the poetry of this century. The spiritual 
element in poetry. Great hymns, are they great poetry .? 
Contemporary and universal interest in poetry. Literature 
of knowledge and literature of power, define each. The 
Bible in Tennyson and other poets. Study a poem as a 
whole, its plan, story, plot, vital idea, and larger teaching; 
note the meaning of paragraphs, sentences, phrases, also 
the poet's use of words. 

Suggested Readings : The best short poems in the Eng- 
lish language. Consider the real meaning and lesson of 
each poem studied. The secret of its music and beauty. 
The secret of power to move or inspire. 

''Tennyson, the Man and the Poet." Suggestions for 
Study: An uneventful life. Development of his mind and 
art. From form to spirit. The poet's ideals; reverence 
for law; sacredness of home life. The sanctity and degra- 
dation of love. Friendship with Arthur Hallam. The story 
of a true friendship. The poet's conception of ideal man- 
hood. Redemption through love. The power to feel, 
rather than the power to think, the safeguard in the conduct 
of life. The poet's treatment of patriotism, death, immor- 
tality, "nature. The larger hope. The finding of God. 
Immortal love. Is Tennyson a great poet ? Has he bor- 
rowed from earlier poets ? 

Suggested Reading : Life of Tennyson. 



38 FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 

*** Idylls of the King.'" Suggestions for Study: 
Sources of the poet's information. Consider the story in 
the poems. Are the poems a history, allegory, or parable ? 
Is this a true epic ? Treatment of chivalry, of loyalty, of 
kingly duty. Profounder teachings. The poem contains 
thought of an earlier age and also of the present age. Is 
the poem a ''great picture of man's conflict with sin and 
fate "? How long did the poet work on the composition of 
the poems ? Are they real ' ' Idylls ' ' ? Was Arthur a real 
king? Consider the style of the poems, music of rhythm, 
beauty of diction and richness of illustrations. Consider the 
substance of the poems, history, allegory, conflict between 
the soul and false ambition, false love and other forms of sin. 
The character of King Arthur. What other writers have 
treated the Arthurian legends f Is the poet a master of 
blank verse ? 

Required Readings : ' ' The Coming of Arthur " ; * * The 
Holy Grail " ; '* Lancelot and Elaine " ; '' The Passing of 
Arthur " ; ' ' Dedication. ' ' 

Suggested Readings: All the ''Idylls." 

*' Poetry and Poets. " Suggestions for Study: What is 
poetry ? Its essential qualities that differentiate it from 
prose. Our need of poetry. Aims and methods in the 
study of poetry. The relation of poetry to music, painting, 
and oratory. Poetry gives enjoyment, and teaches duty, 
endurance, etc. Can love of poetry and other literature be 
taught.^ Correct methods of reading. How to study a 
poem. 

Suggested Readings: Stedman's " Nature and Elements 
of Poetry." Gummere's " Handbook of Poetics. " Articles 
on poetry in cyclopedias. 

The Essay 

**The Rise and Fall of the Essay." Suggestions for 
Study: Beginnings and development of the essay in Greece, 
in Rome, in France. The essay in ancient times — -Seneca, 
Plutarch. Its esteem among the classicists; its lapse during 



FORMING A STUDY CIRCLE 39 

the mediaeval epoch; its regeneration — when, where, and 
how? The height of its power in England; in America; 
its position to-day. Modern newspaper editorials as a dom- 
inant factor; '* tracts " ; the mission of the essay. What is 
an essay ? Why is Dr. Johnson's definition inadequate ? 
Decline of the essay — when, where, and whether temporary 
or permanent? The '' coffee-house " and its influence. 

Suggested Readings: Mabie's "The Essay and Some 
Essayists" ('* Bookman, " Vol. 9). Encyclopedic articles. 
Henley's "A Book of English Prose." 

"Francis Bacon, the Man and the Essayist." Sugges- 
tions for Study: Did Bacon follow any school ? Did he owe 
anything to Montaigne ? Contrast his essay on " Friend- 
ship ' ' with that of Montaigne. Contrast his type or essay 
with that of his English successors. His grasp of subject; 
temper of feeling; purpose; trend of thought. Lobban's 
opinion of the "typical essayist." Are Bacon's essays 
" typical ' ' ? What did /le think of them ? His use of Latin, 
and obligation to classics. His predilection for pithy, 
learned epigrams. His ode at thirteen an indicator of the 
coming man. In above essays, what striking characteristic 
do we find ? Do you agree with the epigrams beginning 
" Reading maketh a full man," etc. ? Why ? 

Required Readings : "Of Seeming Wise " ; "Of 
Studies." 

Suggested Readings: Life of Bacon. Life of Montaigne. 
Further essays by these authors. "Bacon's Essays with 
Memoirs and Notes. ' ' 



HOW TO STUDY 



The Study of Poetry 

By FRANCIS HOVEY STODDARD 

CLEVER men of action, according to Bacon, despise 
studies, ignorant men too much admire them, wise men 
make use of them. ' ' Yet, ' ' he says, ' * they teach not their 
own use, but that there is a wisdom without them and above 
them, won by observation." These are the words of a 
man who had been taught by years of studiousness the 
emptiness of mere study. It does not teach its own useful- 
ness, and gives its most important lesson if through it we 
learn that beyond lies a region from which may come a 
truer wisdom won by observation. This, when all is said, 
is the one great defect of any system of study, in that it 
teaches not its own use. No amount of study of the prin- 
ciples of barter will make a man a great merchant. One 
can study painting and learn all the characteristics and 
methods and schools of the art and yet not be able to paint 
a picture. No amount of study of poetry will make a man 
a poet. So the crafty men of action ** contemn studies," 
and the wise men who use them look beyond them for their 
value. ''English Hterature," said a noted professor not 
long ago, " cannot be taught " ; and certain it is that even 
with the most advanced analytical text-book one cannot get 
a final satisfaction from ** doing a sum " in English literature 
as one would work a problem in arithmetic. When applied 
to the higher arts, study, deep and true as one can make it, 

40 



THE STUDY OF POETRY 41 

leaves one the surer that there is a wisdom beyond, which 
Cometh not by study alone. 

Least of all can the deepest things in poetry be learned 
by mere study. Poetry deals with feeling, which study ex- 
cludes. Study, indeed, seems to belong exclusively to the 
prose habit; it seems to be of the intellect and not of the 
emotions; to be of the mind and not of the spirit. We can- 
not write a text-book in poetry, nor can we ever in a text- 
book written in prose put all the secret of poetry. Beyond 
the text-book always lies the higher wisdom born of that 
which Bacon called observation, which most of us now 
call insight, that immediate apprehension of the highest 
relations which comes as a revelation in our inspired 
moments. 

In spite of all this the study of poetry has an important 
function, and it is the purpose of this article to show how to 
use it most effectively. Poetry is one of the most difficult 
of all arts to study, so difficult that it has had few text- 
books and no complete exposition. The inquirer searching 
for help will find only a few hand-books, the most useful of 
which are these : Gummere : ' * Beginnings of Poetry ' ' and 
* ' Hand-book of Poetry ' ' ; Schipper : ' ' Metrik ' ' ; Lanier : 
'' Science of English Verse " ; Guest: *' EngHsh Rhythms " ; 
Stedman: " The Nature and Elements of Poetry." Excel- 
lent as these are he may lament when he has read them that 
he has found the history of poetic forms, and the technique 
of poetic method, where he hoped to find the secret of poetry. 
He will be likely to get as much help from writings on 
poetry that are not text-books, such as Matthew Arnold's 
Essays : '* On Translating Homer, ' ' ''Last Words on Trans- 
lating Homer," "Celtic Poetry," ''Introduction to the 
Poetry of Wordsworth " ; and the " Introduction to Hum- 
phry Ward's English Poets"; Emerson's Essays: "The 
Poet" and "Poetry and Imagination"; Wordsworth's 
Introduction to the " Lyrical Ballads " ; Poe's striking little 
essays on the art of poetry; Aristotle's "Rhetoric"; 
Macaulay's *' Essay on Milton"; Lowell's "Essay on 
Dryden " ; and many a passage of illuminative comment from 



42 THE STUDY OF POETRY 

Milton, from Pope, from Dryden, from Coleridge and from 
many another. For one who has not known and read much 
poetry the best introduction to its study may well be the 
pleasurable reading of some, or of all, of these works, 
though remembering that such reading is not study, but 
only the reviewing of records of work done by others, use- 
ful mainly as a preparation for the real study which is to 
follow. 

From all these works the student will not be likely to 
get a definition of poetry which will satisfy him. One may 
say indeed with truth that poetry is such expression as par- 
allels the real and the ideal by means of some rhythmic 
form. But this is not a complete definition. Poetry is not 
to be bounded with a measuring line or sounded with a 
plummet. The student must feel after its limits as these 
authors have done, and find for himself its satisfactions. 
One can feel more of its power than the mind can define; 
for definitions are prose-forms of mind action, while poetry 
in its higher manifestations is pure emotion, outpassing prose 
Hmits. Yet one can know poetry if he cannot completely 
define it. The one essential element which distinguishes it 
from prose is rhythm. In its primal expressions this is 
mainly a rhythm of stresses and sounds — of accents and 
measures, of alliterations and rhymes. Poetry began when 
man, swaying his body, first sang or moaned to give ex- 
pression to his joy or sorrow. Its earliest forms are the 
songs which accompany the simplest emotions. When 
rowers were in a boat the swinging oars became rhythmic, 
and the oarsman's chant naturally followed. When the 
savage overcame his enemy, he danced his war dance, and 
sang his war song around his camp fire at night, tone and 
words and gesture all fitting into harmony with the move- 
ment of his body. So came the chants and songs of work 
and of triumph. For the dead warrior the moan of lamen- 
tation fitted itself to the slower moving to and fro of the 
mourner, and hence came the elegy. In its first expres- 
sion this was but inarticulate, half action, half music, dumbly 
voicing the emotion through the senses ; its rhythms were 



THE STUDY OF POETRY 43 

all for the ear and it had little meaning beyond the crude 
representation of some simple human desire and grief. 

It became poetry when it put a thrill of exultation in 
work, of delight in victory, or of grief at loss by death, into 
some rhythmic form tangible to the senses. There grew 
up thereafter a body of rhythmic forms — lines, stanzas, ac- 
cents, rhythms, verbal harmonies. These forms are the 
outward dress of poetry, and may rightly be the first subject 
of the student's study. We properly give the name of poetry 
to verses such as Southey's "Lodore," Poe's ** Bells," 
or Lanier's '' Song of the Chattahoochee," which do little 
more than sing to our ears the harmonies of sound, the 
ultimate rhythms of nature. Yet it is not merely the brook 
or the bell or the river, that we hear in the poem, but the 
echoing of that large harmony of nature of which the sound 
of the brook or the bell is only the single strain. Through 
the particular it suggests the universal, as does all poetry, 
leading through nature up to something greater, far be- 
yond. This rhythm is best studied in poems that were 
written to be sung or chanted. If one could read Greek, or 
Anglo-Saxon, or Old High German, or the English of Chau- 
cer's day, he could quickly train his ear to be independent 
of the handbooks on versification, by reading aloud, or lis- 
tening as one read aloud, the * ' Odyssey ' ' or the ' * Beowulf, ' ' 
or the ''Nibelungen Lied" or the *' Canterbury Tales." 
These would be better for this purpose than any modern 
verses, for the reason that they were intended to be sung or 
chanted, and so all the rhythms are real to the senses. 
Since the barrier of language bars out for most of us this 
older verse, we can read the early ballads, the lyrics of the 
Elizabethan time, when as yet verses spoke mainly to the 
ear, or some modern poems of the simpler type, such as 
''Evangeline" or ''Hiawatha." 

Such poetry, which is mainly to delight and charm the 
ear, is really a primal form of verse and we may properly 
call it the poetry of the senses. In studying it Lanier's 
" Science of English Verse " is a delightful companion and 
many minor hand-books besides those named above, such as 



44 THE STUDY OF POETRY 

are found in most schools, and some of the shorter accounts 
of versification such as are found in works on rhetoric, will 
give assistance. 

Yet the pathway to the mastery of the problems of meter 
is for each student to tread alone. The best plan is to read 
aloud a considerable quantity. Then the technical language 
of the books will lose its terrors and the simplicity of 
construction of good poetry will become apparent. If the 
student will read so much of this poetry that his senses be- 
come responsive to its music, he will no longer need a hand- 
book. For this purpose let him read such poems as can be 
sung, chanted, or spoken to the ear; such as Macaulay's 
*' Lays of Ancient Rome," Scott's *'Marmion," Browning's 
*' Pied Piper," and '' How They Brought the Good News," 
Tennyson's *' Charge of the Light Brigade." Let him 
read mainly for the senses rather than for the mind, getting 
the reward in the quickening of life through the throbbing 
rhythms ; then the metrical system of poetry will become as 
real to him as the rhythmic movements of the planets are 
to an astronomer. There is no other way to get a feeling 
for the pulsations of poetry than through this intimate 
acquaintance. Without this, months of reading of amphi- 
brachs and trochees and dactyls will not avail. It should 
be read aloud as much as possible to make the swing of its 
verses perfectly clear. When it sings to us as we read, it 
has begun to teach the message of its rhythms. 

Thus far the text-books have been pleasant companions, 
even when unable to give as much aid to the student as he 
could wish; but the fact will come to him at length that 
there is something more in poetry than the hand-books per- 
mit him to consider. These books deal with the forms, and 
most of them with the forms only. They analyze the meth- 
ods, work out the meters, show how the parts are woven 
together, explain how the chords produce the harmonies. 
But just in proportion as the student becomes learned in 
these rhythms, and can distinguish minute or subtle varia- 
tions of metrical structure, does he realize that this study 
teaches not its own use and that there is something beyond 



THE STUDY OF POETRY 45 

which must be won by his own observation. He finds in his 
search for rhythmical perfection that there are poems which 
make Httle appeal to his senses, whose lines do not sing 
themselves through his day-dreams, which yet affect his 
imagination even more powerfully than the musical strains 
thrilled his senses. He finds that there is much more in 
poetry than its rhymes and jingles, that there is a rhythm 
greater than that of the senses. In its more complex forms 
poetry is rhythm of thought, leading the mind to find relations 
which prose may describe, but which poetry alone can re- 
create. There is such a thing as a prose thought and such 
a thing as a poetic thought. The one gives with exactness 
the fact as it exists, clearly, honestly, directly, and for all 
completed and tangible things is the natural medium of ex- 
pression. The other parallels the actual with a suggestion 
of an ideal rhythmically consonant with the motive underly- 
ing the fact. Justice, for example, deals in prose fashion 
with a crime and awards the punishment which the law 
allows; poetic justice suggests such recompense as would 
come of itself in a community perfectly organized. The 
prose of life is honest living, a worthy endeavor to do the 
best one can in the world as it is ; the poetry of life is the 
feeling for, and the striving after, the bringing of this life 
into harmony with a nobler living. So we rightly give the 
name of poetry to such verse as Goldsmith's ** Deserted 
Village," Johnson's '* London," Gray's '* Elegy," Words- 
worth's ' * Excursion, ' ' Milton's ' * Paradise Lost, ' ' Chaucer's 
"Knight's Tale," Browning's "Ring and the Book," 
Tennyson's "In Memoriam," which do not much stir our 
senses. They parallel the real with the ideal, suggesting 
the eternal rhythms of infinite mind as the poetry of the 
senses suggests the eternal rhythms of omnipotent nature. 

This Poetry of the Intellect is the second great division 
of the poetic realm. Beyond it lies still another; for there 
are spiritual harmonies which the mind alone cannot com- 
pass, and which the senses alone cannot interpret. The 
hand-books know little of spiritual harmonies, and do not 
go beyond their academic classifications of lyric and epic, 



46 THE STUDY OF POETRY 

and their catalogues of pentameters, hexameters, or alex- 
andrines. But the student can for himself push his observa- 
tion beyond, and come to the poetry of the higher 
imagination, where he can be forgetful of the mere form and 
disdainful of the merely logical relations, where his spirit can 
as it were see face to face the truth beyond the seeming. 
This is the poetry of the spirit, and ought to come as a rev- 
elation to the searcher. He may first find it in some pure 
lyric such as Shelley's *' Skylark, " or in some mystical fan- 
tasy such as Moore's '*Lallah Rookh " or Coleridge's 
*' Christabel," or in some story of human abnegation such 
as Tennyson's "Enoch Arden," or some wail of a soul in 
pain, as in Shelley's " Adonais," or in some outburst of ex- 
ultant grief such as Whitman's ''Captain, My Captain," or 
in some revelation of the unseen potencies close about us as 
in Browning's ''Saul," or in som'e vision of the mystery of 
this our earthly struggle such as " Childe Roland to the 
Dark Tower Came, "or in some answer of the spirit to a 
never stilled question such as Wordsworth's *' Ode on Inti- 
mations of Immortality. ' ' When he thus finds it he has 
come to poetry in its highest use. In his "Alexander's 
Feast ' ' Dryden hints at two great functions of poetry in the 
lines : 

" He raised a mortal to the skies, 
She drew an angel down." 

The office of poetry is to parallel the actual with the ideal, 
to cast upon an earthly landscape something of a heavenly 
glow, to interpret earthly things in terms of the spirit. The 
poetry of the senses lifts a mortal to the skies, thinking the 
thought of one higher than itself as the poet muses, singing 
the song of an angelic choir in harmony with the rhythm 
of the verse. The poetry of the spirit brings the message 
of the angels down to men and makes the harmonies they 
speak the music of this earthly life. 

The highest type of poetry lends itself perfectly to earnest 
and profound study. In class work it is usually better to 
study poets as well as poems, and to study thoroughly a few 
works of a great master. Poetry is essentially a synthetic 



THE STUDY OF POETRY 47 

art ; it unites the wandering desires of our hearts and spirits 
to make one single and enduring impression. Poetry speaks 
also the mood, the aspiration and the deepest intent of its 
author, so that the great poet is the one who brings us most 
directly to understand its art. For most student classes it 
is best to take a single poet for interpretation, and to study 
in succession a small number — say six to ten — of his works, 
making one, or at least, two or three, the subject of the con- 
ferences for each week. The choice of author will be de- 
pendent on many considerations and cannot here be positively 
advised, but one will not go astray in choosing Wordsworth, 
Tennyson, Browning, Longfellow, or Whittier, or three of 
them, for a season's work. Intelligent direction is of great 
assistance in making the study definite and progressive. 
Choose first of all the poems which seem to have influenced 
men, for to move men is the final test of poetry. If there is 
no class, and no leader, let the student make his choice by 
a preliminary examination. Let him read rapidly, and for 
the single impression, the poems of Wordsworth whose titles 
seem most familiar to him as he scans them over; such 
as **Tintern Abbey," ** Yarrow Un visited," "Solitary 
Reaper," *'Lucy," "We are Seven," "The Intimations 
of Immortality, " " She was a Phantom of Delight, ' ' and a 
few of the lyrical ballads; then let him read Tennyson's 
"Locksley Hall," "Maud," "The Idylls of the King," 
and a few of the shorter poems; let him read Browning's 
"Saul," " Abt Vogler," "The Grammarian's Funeral," 
" Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," " Pippa 
Passes," one or two dramas, and a few of the brief poems 
in the volume "Men and Women." Then let him make 
his own list for study, taking those poems which have most 
stirred him, those which he remembers vividly after his read- 
ing, those which have become a part of himself. If the 
student makes his choice frankly and sincerely, he has, in 
making it, begun his study. Then let him frame for him- 
self or get from his leader, if he has one, a list of the ques- 
tions whith each poem is to answer for him. If the work 
be really poetry, its study ought to give a help toward the 



48 THE STUDY OF POETRY 

solution of the first great problems: '' What is poetry?" and, 
' ' What is its revelation to the life of our senses, our hearts, 
and our souls ?" We have a right to ask of each poem 
three questions : ' ' How does it charm our senses ? " ; " How 
does it make the meaning of things clearer for us ?" ; " How 
does it bring to us a renewal of life? " The first question is 
better fitted for private study than for class investigation, 
the senses being delicate organs and shy in company. Let 
the minute matters of form and structure be gone over at 
home. Let the student work out the meter, the typical line, 
and the variations by which the poet gets his effects, the 
metaphors, the alliterations, the consonant and vowel har- 
monies. It will aid if this work be made as definite and as 
exact as an investigation in a scientific laboratory. But all 
this should be the student's home work. In the class the 
large divisions of the poem should be sympathetically shown, 
so that each student will comprehend the poem as a whole 
as the poet must have conceived it. Then as some one 
reads aloud the lines the music of the rhythms will come by 
assimilation rather than by analysis. Poetry parallels the 
real with the ideal to make a harmony before undreamed of. 
So in the lines sound re-echoes sound, and a subtle music 
but half perceived sings itself out of the moving notes. 

What burden this music bears is the second question. 
Poetry differs from prose in that it lifts the thought so that 
its highest relations and suggestions are made known. We 
have a right therefore to parallel the prose sight with the 
poetic visions and to find in what the one transcends the 
other. If we are studying the "Idylls of the King," for 
instance, we may fitly ask what was the story as the poet 
took it, and into what he has transformed it for us. This 
study of the thought of the poem is an excellent subject for 
class work. The questions should be made definite and so 
grouped that sections of the class can choose one or another 
phase of the problem ; the conferences should be so directed 
that a few clearly worked-out and thoroughly unified poetic 
thoughts will be left in the mind of each student. 

In all things practice may fitly supplement precept. In 



THE STUDY OF POETRY 49 

1 reading circle of which one of the editors of this series was 
i member the poems of Tennyson were studied by a method 
:losely resembHng that advocated in this article. As a sug- 
gestion the topics and questions for one of the poems are 
lere given. One of the members acted as leader. A brief 
issay reciting the history of the poem was read. The en- 
;ire poem was read aloud by one of the members of the 
:lass. Then the topics given below were discussed as pre- 
sented in turn by groups of students who had given especial 
ittention to one of the topics. In the discussions the entire 
:lass joined, and at the close a very brief summing up by the 
eader gathered up the threads of thought. 

Topic : ' ' Locksley Hall ' ' and ' ' Locksley Hall Sixty 
i^ears After. ' ' 

Required Readings : ' ' Locksley Hall " ; * ' Locksley Hall 
Mxty Years After " ; ' ' Lady Clara Vere de Vere " ; "Sir 
jalahad." 

Suggested Readings: In connection with the earlier 
3oem, '* Ulysses " and " Ths Two Voices," in connection 
^ith the later poem, " Maud "; " Memoir of Tennyson,." 
Dy Lord Hallam Tennyson. 

Suggestions for Study: (A) The physical basis of the 
)oem. 

Study the meter. Why called Trochaic Octameter ? In 
vhat way does this meter resemble and in what way differ 
rom Lowell's '* Present Crisis," Swinburne's " Triumph of 
rime," Browning's ''There's a woman like a dewdrop " 
from '' The Blot i' the Scutcheon "), and Mrs. Browning's 
' Rhyme of the Duchess May ' ' ? Why is this meter pecul- 
arly adapted to the sentiment of *' Locksley Hall " ? How 
loes the meter differ in effect from that of Mrs. Julia Ward 
riowe's ''Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Bryant's 
'The Death of the Flowers" and Tennyson's "May 
3ueen "? Is the effect of the rhythm optimistic as opposed 
the pessimism of the ' ' Triumph of Time, * ' and why ? 
Nhy are the lines of this poem so easily carried in the mem- 
)ry.? What is there in the use of words which gives such 



50 THE STUDY OF POETRY 

sweetness to the verses as one reads them aloud ? Has the 
poem for you a music of its own which haunts you Hke a re- 
membered vision? Find out, if you can, something of the 
secret of this music. (B) The intellectual interest of the 
poem. 

(i) Consider the meaning of difficult passages, such as 
" Fairy tales of science." Explain the meaning of stanzas 
containing the following quotations: ** Smote the chord of 
self"; ** Cursed be the social wants"; *'That a sorrow's 
crown of sorrow"; *'But the jingling of the guinea"; 
** Slowly comes a hungry people"; "Knowledge comes, 
but wisdom lingers." 

(2) How long an interval elapsed between the writing 
of the above two poems ? Does any change in style or 
trend of thought indicate the lapse of time ? The earlier 
poem was and is immensely popular. Why ? Why is the 
later one less popular ? 

(3) What is the story in the poem, and in what manner 
is it told? How is the story continued in *< Sixty Years 
After ' ' ? Was Locksley Hall an inland or a seashore resi- 
dence, and why ? Describe the surroundings from sugges- 
tions in the poems. Sum up what the hero tells of himself 
and his love-story. What suggestions are there regarding 
the characters of Amy and Edith ? Is the emotional side 
of the hero as finely balanced as the intellectual side ? 
What light is thrown on the character of his love by his out- 
bursts against Amy ? Would it be fair to judge of Amy 
and her husband by what he says of them in his first 
anguish ? Does he ever admit that he judged them harshly ? 
If so, do you agree with him altogether ? Was it well for 
Amy to marry as she did ? When obedience to parental 
wishes and love are in conflict, which should be followed ? 
Did the hero's evil prophecies come true ? Whose love do 
you think was the greatest, Amy's, or his, or the squire's ? 

(4) How does Tennyson all through the poem make it a 
parable of human life ? 

(C) The emotional influence of the poem. How has this 
poem influenced you ? For many persons, Tennyson, out 



THE STUDY OF POETRY 51 

of a simple love-story, has made a prophecy of ideal love. 
Has he for you ? For many persons Tennyson made poetry 
out of this simple story when he paralleled the tale of earthly 
passion with a vision of completer life, so vivid that the pain 
and tragedy of this present life come to be for us but the 
preparation for the better life to come, as the poet sings to 
us that 

" Through the ages one increasing purpose runs 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
suns." 

Has he to you in like manner through this poem given a 
truer conception of the nature and use of poetry ? 

Systematic study such as that suggested above will help 
in answering the questions, * ' What charm has this poem for 
us ? " and ' * How does it put a deeper meaning into the 
events it records ?" But it is difficult to frame formal ques- 
tions the answers to which will show how a poem quickens 
life. The influence of a poem is so much a matter of tem- 
perament arid of emotion, both of the author and of the 
reader, that one has to feel its power rather than to work it 
out logically. Poetry passes beyond prose in that it quick- 
ens life by moving us to feel its nobler emotions. It will 
teach its own lesson to the appreciative reader, and the 
student who gets fully into sympathy with a great poem will 
have his whole life made brighter. Class work, done sym- 
pathetically and sincerely, will aid in finding the truest in- 
terpretations. Yet studies teach not their own use. The 
higher blessings come to us unbidden if we as little children 
hope for them. We shall find the highest uses of poetry in 
remembering always that it may at its best come to us as an 

" Angel of light 
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night." 



HOW TO STUDY 



Study of the Novel 

By FRANCIS HOVEY STODDARD 

IT has not till very recent years been easy to connect the 
notion of serious study with novel-reading. To most of 
us a novel is an appropriate amusement for an idle hour, and 
suggests a hammock on a cottage piazza in the summer days 
of rest. To the appointed guardians of books and of read- 
ing fiction is rather a trial. Librarians are apt to advise 
readers to take other literature than novels, and to be proud 
when they show at the end of a year that the proportion of 
readers of fiction is somewhat lessened. They urge the 
reading of history, of philosophy, of poetry, of criticism, of 
biography, in preference ; they place special restrictions on 
romances; they put forth lists of useful books to draw the 
novel-reader back to earnest work ; they oppose * ' serious 
literature ' ' to fiction in the reports. By one founder of 
libraries the proposal is made that no novel less than two 
years old shall be bought. The general attitude seems to 
be that the serious study of fiction is hardly to be consid- 
ered, and that the reading of stories is a habit to be tol- 
erated rather than to be encouraged. 

Even this condition of toleration, however, is something 
gained for fiction as compared with its earlier standing in 
professional circles. In former days it was rather dreaded 
than tolerated. The distinction between that which has not 
actually happened and that which is not in accord with truth 
was not very clear when the novel first made its appeal, and 

52 



STUDY OF THE NOVEL 53 

a prejudice against it on the score of lack of verity had to be 
overcome. Serious objections were urged against all fic- 
tion, on the ground of the distorted views of life which it 
presented, on the ground of the dissatisfaction with the 
routine of life which it engendered, and on the ground of 
the emotional unrest which it brought to young minds. For 
reasons such as these many parents forbade their children to 
read any works of fiction; most teachers kept such works 
rigidly out of their courses ; many clergymen openly con- 
demned them. Taken as a whole, fiction, up to a very 
recent period, was limited in its province to the field of 
amusement and light diversion; to keep it in its proper 
place the older disciplines felt themselves in honor bound to 
wage continual war. 

Against this feeling of distrust, which now seems to us 
to have been born partly of prejudice and partly of justifiable 
hesitancy in accepting cordially a new method of expression, 
fiction has certainly made some head. In quarters where it 
was first feared it is now enjoyed; where it was first only a 
means of enjoyment, it is now seriously entreated. Certain 
of the greater works of fiction are now approved even by the 
librarians ; certain of the older works of fiction are now ap- 
pointed to be read in schools, discussed in academies, 
lectured upon in universities. Even in the list of books 
required to be read as preparation for entrance to college 
three or four novels are to be found. In the courses offered 
in literature in colleges fiction has taken a permanent place. 

Clubs study novels ; social movements are based upon 
them or helped by them ; the most serious religious prob- 
lems are discussed in them. That which seemed lighter 
than the finger of a man's hand has come to be the whip of 
scorpions to modern society; now more than ever the essay, 
the drama, and fiction are the means of teaching the serious 
lessons of manners and of morals. So great a change as 
this is an indication that fiction has found its place in mod- 
ern life. It is the purpose of this article to show what are 
its relations and influences and how we may best make use 
of the opportunities which it affords. 



54 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 

A good novel is a composite biography. It becomes a 
novel because it tells the story of a life. If veritable biog- 
raphy could always be written, if the story of an actual life 
as lived could always be told by an ideal biographer, with- 
out malice and without extenuation, with inter-play of influ- 
ence and desire, of circumstance, intention and propinqui- 
tous association, the field of the novel would be taken. A 
few such biographies each one of us knows, told by some 
Boswell who builded better than he knew. But they are 
very few. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of 
riches choke the word when the biographer speaks. The 
biography he writes becomes even less historical than most 
histories, far more unreal than most romances. The novel 
in its best estate is a real biography told by an artist who 
has studied his hero, who has lived with him in his days 
of passion, trial, or achievement, and who is unhampered 
in the telling of the story. The novel thus has a field as 
broad as life, and in common with the drama has become a 
great exponent, in literature, of human relations. Its scope 
is broader than the drama, though less absolute, for the 
reason that the novel can tell us the story of the quiet, un- 
vexed soul living itself upward through the serene years, 
while the drama must speak of action. The crash of broken 
commandments, to use the happy phrase of Thomas Hardy, 
is as necessary to tragedy as is the clash of cymbals to a 
military march, while, on the other hand, life's calm deeps 
are but lightly skimmed in comedy. 

There are whole regions of living that are essentially 
undramatic though palpitant with life, and of these the novel 
is the fit historian . It is both less and more than biography. 
It is less in that the final touch of reality can never be given 
by any artist, be he ever so skillful, to that which is after all 
but a creation of his fancy; it is more, in that it is a com- 
posite portrait which the artist draws for us, showing a life 
into whose web of existence have been woven threads to form 
a pattern, the secret motives of which he only can fully 
know whose outlines print themselves upon our memory. 
So the novel rightly moves us, for it is begotten of desire. 



STUDY OF THE NOVEL 55 

and in its highest state is a true record of emotional life. It 
is biography touched with emotion. 

In real life the days of extreme emotion are somewhat 
rare, and so in fiction the novel of extreme emotion is like- 
wise rare. Yet at the basis of all fiction is the emotion 
motive. One may even define a novel in terms of emo- 
tion, and say that a novel is a story of the progress of some 
passion and its effect upon a life. The type-form is the 
story of a life influenced by a passion of attraction, or a 
passion of aversion — by a strong hate or a strong love. 
Since we all love loving more than we love hating, the love 
novel has the broadest field of influence ; and since we all 
love to be in a winning game, the novel of love triumphant 
over obstacles — the old three-decker of which Kipling sings, 
riding into its haven in the last chapter, and ** taking tired 
people to the Islands of the Blest ' ' — is the one dearest to 
most of us. It gives us an ideal hero and heroine ; it takes 
us back to summer days of gladness ; it keeps us young with 
its pictures of youth. Had the novel no other mission than 
this of rest and recreation, it could justify itself. The bur- 
dens of life roll off from us as we read how the hero won his 
victory. 

To some weak minds every-day duties grow distasteful in 
comparison with the pleasant trials of life in fiction, and so 
far as this is true, novel reading works harm. But minds 
are more healthful than we are apt to think, and to healthful 
minds contact with the heroes and heroines of fiction is a 
stimulant. If it does nothing more for the reader than to 
extend the boundary of acquaintance, it has served its pur- 
pose. What a gallery of portraits of friends have the novels 
we have read painted for us! Strike out Trollope, Dickens, 
Thackeray, Dumas, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Hawthorne, 
and Walter Scott from our memories and how slight is the 
acquaintance we have left. Leaving study quite out of the 
reckoning, taking the novel simply as a companion for hours 
of rest and easy desire, who can say it has not been a solace 
and a charm ? 

The pleasures of life gain, rather than lose, when made 



56 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 

intelligent. The pleasure of looking at pictures increases 
with every broadening of knowledge of art, and the pleasure 
of traveling grows greater with study of the regions to be 
visited. So the intelligent study of the art of fiction gives 
assistance even to the page-skimmer of a summer afternoon 
and mightily strengthens the enjoyment of the serious reader. 
For such study there are two methods which appeal with 
unequal interest to different minds. The first is to learn 
what can be known of the history of the art, of its begin- 
nings, progress, and present state, of its methods, oppor- 
tunities, and limitations, and then to set the particular work 
in hand in its proper place in the entire recital. 

The second method of study begins with a single work, 
and by finding its secret, gains the key to the other forms. 
In the one case we study inward from the general, and nar- 
row the search to the work in hand ; in the other we study 
outward from the single example. To the scholarly mind 
the second method has most attraction ; and the earnest 
student, however he may begin, will be apt to come to it in 
any case as his work goes on. But there is an advantage 
in beginning with at least an opening glance at the history 
and essentials of the art. The novel as we know it belongs 
to the last two centuries. It is modern in its every charac- 
teristic — as in its insistence on equal rights of men and 
women in affairs of love, in its interest in social problems, 
in its interest in the individual man whatever his degree or 
condition, in its interest in the conduct of life — and its his- 
torical study is therefore easily within reach. 

For such study there are now several excellent hand- 
books * which treat of the ancestry of fiction and of its his- 
tory since Defoe and Richardson made it a fact in English 
literature. In using all such hand-books students will be 
aided by adopting some system of classification so that the 
study can be by development of kind as well as by sequence 
in order of time. 



♦ Dunlop : " History of Fiction." Warren : " History of the Novel Previous to ttie 
Seventeenth Century." Raleigh: "The English Novel." Cross: "The Devel- 
opment of the Novel." Stoddard : *• The Evolution of the English Novel;" 



STUDY OF THE NOVEL 57 

The universe about us is an orderly system so that any 
scientific study becomes of necessity an orderly grouping of 
facts. We distinguish species in birds and orders of families 
in plants ; we work out the relations of constellations in 
astronomy; we group the metals and non-metals in chem- 
istry; we find periods of activity in geology. The mind 
naturally expects to find that a family system will show it- 
self in the productions of the mind as well as in the phe- 
nomena of nature. We have the feeling that ' * consciousness 
of kind " will come to literary works and that they can be 
grouped like living organisms. To a great extent this ex- 
pectation on the student's part is justified, for some system 
of classification, more or less natural and more or less com- 
plete, is sure to come to his aid. 

In fiction we find well-defined groups. A novel is an 
artistic biography. It has a motive, which is emotion, and 
an object, which is the telling of the story of a life in such 
an artistic fashion as shall illuminate its incidents, recreate 
its environment, make clear its hidden secrets, and suggest 
its moral. Three fields of activity are thus opened to fic- 
tion. The first is that of contemporaneous actual life, and 
gives us the fiction of personality. The second is that of 
past life, and gives us historical fiction. The third is of the 
unrealized life, which has no limit of date, and gives us the 
fiction of romance. Under these three heads — the novel of 
the present, the novel of the past and the novel uncon- 
ditioned — may be grouped all serious fiction. 

The fiction of contemporaneous life gives us the novel of 
manners, of satire, of problem, of purpose. The fiction of 
past life gives us that historical study of the real or imaginary 
hero of the past of which the world will never tire. The 
fiction of romance gives us the fascinating recital of the im- 
possible life of a hero whose deeds make the incredible as 
natural as our desires, or whose soul-struggles make distress 
delightful. 

Taking these three divisions as the beginning of study, 
serious work can readily be planned. The novel of con- 
temporaneous life — that novel which in any period tells the 



58 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 

story of the emotional passages in the life of some hero of 
that day and generation — is the most common form. If the 
student is working alone, the best plan of study will be for 
him to read first the general story of the predecessors of the 
novel, as found in Dunlop and Warren, and then, with more 
care, to read the history of fiction as it has existed in Eng- 
lish literature since the novel first found itself in the pages 
of Richardson, Smollett, Sterne, and Fielding. 

If a group of students are working together in a club, 
class, or reading circle, this historical, preliminary work will 
be much lightened by having part of it given in lectures 
by the leader, and part in special studies, by members of 
the class, of periods, divisions, or special questions of in- 
terest. This preliminary work may properly occupy two or 
three weeks, at the end of which time a bird's-eye view of 
the whole field should have been gained by every student. 
Its best result will be to locate for the inquirer the works 
that are worth his attention in subsequent study. It is as 
if an explorer, entering a region totally new to him, had 
the fortune to climb a mountain from which the surrounding 
country was all in view. He could not from such quick view 
get the detail or know the country with any thoroughness, 
but he would get a knowledge of the high places and the 
low places, of the general trend of things, which no amount 
of valley exploration could give him. 

In like manner, not to press the figure too far, the student, 
from this preliminary survey, can get a clear notion of the 
high places and the low places in fiction's history, of the 
trend of things, and of the works worth minute study. Hav- 
ing completed this the student, if he be alone, or the leader, 
or better still, the whole class if there is a club, should 
choose a series of master- works to be read and studied. 
These works must be chosen, of course, on information and 
belief, as the lawyers say, as to their logical sequence, but 
they will be well chosen if the list be confined to works that 
have reputation and are in each case representative of an 
idea. 

Each book taken should stand for a personality. There 



STUDY OF THE NOVEL 59 

IS a wealth of choice — Pamela, Roderick Random, Clarissa 
Harlowe, Tom Jones, Dr. Primrose, Emma, Hawkeye, 
Jane Eyre, Pickwick, David Copperfield, Adam Bede, 
Romola, Hester Prynne, Becky Sharp, Lorna Doone, Pen- 
dennis — and every life is told by a biographer untrammeled 
by social pride or family feeling. Let the class choose half 
a dozen typical personages whose biographies as told in fic- 
tion they would like to study. These may be taken in chro- 
nological order as far as possible, but the basis of selection 
should be the vitality of the hero, or heroine, remembering 
that since the novel of personality is a biography its hero 
must live for us in its pages. 

In studying these examples, it is better to follow a def- 
inite line of inquiry. Let the student ask for himself, or the 
leader ask for him, specific questions — as to the type of char- 
acter represented, as to the clearness with which it is painted, 
as to the growth of the art of story-telling shown in the suc- 
cessive examples, as to the honesty and truth of the tale 
that is told, and as to the worth of the life that is there un- 
folded. The last question especially we have a perfect right 
to ask in studying the novel of personality. Life should be 
fruitful, and any study of a life, even in a novel, must be a 
study of one made fruitful through experience, or of one 
whose failures show us how a better life might have been 
lived. It is not that the great novel teaches a moral so 
much as that it is moral. All the issues of things are so 
brought out that the harmony of true living is shown even 
in the failures. We have a right to ask, also, if the novel- 
ist's art is just and strong. If such a series can be chosen 
as shall answer these questions, their study will educate as 
well as inform the student. 

The historical novel presents a somewhat simpler field, 
and it is for most students better to take it up before under- 
taking the subdivisions of the personality novel — the novels 
of satire, introspection, purpose, and problem. Scott is still 
the great master of the lighter historical novel. After read- 
ing him a series of half a dozen subsequent examples down 
to the latest success of the present day, will fairly illustrate 



60 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 

the delightful mingling of real and ideal which gives the his- 
torical novel its charm. The student may well remember 
that a poor historical novel is neither history nor fiction, and 
that only a few works in this field are masterpieces worthy 
of serious study. Yet he will not keenly feel the need of a 
guide until he reaches the third great division, that of the 
romantic novel. 

I have called this the novel of the unrealized life, for its 
motive is always the desire of an unsatisfied soul exploring 
the dim days of the past, or the misty regions beyond the 
physical, mental, or spiritual horizon, in search of something 
which the present day and the present experience has failed 
to give. Romantic fiction is as old as time and as new as 
to-morrow. Its illusiveness and intangibility make it one 
of the most difficult of all fields of study, as it is one of the 
most fascinating of all fields of intellectual pleasure. It is 
best approached, even by the serious student, through the 
gateway of desire. In romance let him study what he loves, 
and the lesson of the search will come unasked. 

These general studies will probably make up about half 
of the year's work. To follow them may come the special, 
detailed, and critical — though, if to be beneficial, always 
appreciative — examination of a few of the greater works. 
When possible make this also the study of a great author, 
for the personality of a biographer molds the biography, be 
it a real or an imaginary one. Take also, when possible, 
the greatest work of a novelist, and give all the sessions of 
a definite period — say a week or a fortnight — to this one 
work. If the circle is large, the range of study may well be 
large also, separate groups of students taking the various 
phases of the subject. For illustration a study of ^'Vanity 
Fair, ' ' made by a reading circle of which one of the editors 
of this series was a member, is appended, but only as a sug- 
gestion. If the group is small the study can be correspond- 
ingly intensive and special. But it will be, in either case, 
productive of best results when made most definite. 

With such a scheme of work a class can in a year read 
with reasonable thoroughness all of the history of fiction that 



STUDY OF THE NOVEL 61 

is necessary for the understanding of the existing state of the 
art ; can get a clear idea of the various methods of novel- 
writing, their possibilities and opportunities ; and can get an 
intimate acquaintance with a dozen masterpieces. And ever 
afterward fiction will be reality to such students. 

** William Makepeace Thackeray — a Biographical and 
Critical Estimate." Suggestions for Study: Thackeray as 
a man and as a man of letters; as the castigator of social 
shams. Compare with Dickens. The quality of his humor 
and pathos. Is he a great historical novelist } His boy- 
hood and college days; life-story; artistic ambitions; first 
literary venture. His attractive and peculiar personality. 
Does he '' put himself into his books ''} In what way is he 
a moralist, or '' week-day preacher "? Consider him as an 
artist, satirist, and poet. Did he attempt to reform society .-* 
Had he deep insight into the human heart, like Shake- 
speare } Was he a cynic } Does he attempt to describe 
men and women as they actually are } 

Suggested Reading: 

''Vanity Fair — A Novel of Social Satire." Sugges- 
tions for Study: Is " Vanity Fair " a realistic novel } Are 
the villains too villainous and the good people too " goody- 
goody ".'* Make a brief character sketch of Amelia, Becky, 
and Crawley. Which is the most powerful scene in the 
novel } Becky seems thoroughly bad ; can anything be said 
in her defense "^ Are all the minor characters consistently 
and completely depicted } Is this a book of which every 
word should be read .'' In what v/ay is this a story of social 
satire ? Is there any authentic history in the novel .'* Is it 
a story without a hero ? Has it a heroine } Is the magnifi- 
cent Becky immoral or only unmoral .^ Note her skill as a 
player of the ' ' bluff ' ' game. Does Thackeray correctly de- 
scribe the foibles and shams of fashionable life .^ Does he 
picture the pathos of human life? Does he not seem to for- 
get that some women are tender, true, and intellectual as 
well; and that some men are brave and upright ? Define 
idealism; realism. Is Thackeray an idealist or a realist.? 
How does he display supreme art in the treatment of Becky ? 



62 STUDY OF THE NOVEL 

Required Reading : * ' Vanity Fair. ' ' 

Suggested Reading: Trevyllian's Life of Thackeray. 

The three following studies are selected from the list 
given by Dr. Richard G. Moulton, in his "Four Years of 
Novel Reading," an account of the systematic study of fic- 
tion by an English circle. 

* * Martin Chuzzlewit. ' ' Points to be noted (suggested 
by Professor R. G. Moulton) — (i) Four different types of 
selfishness — Old Martin, Young Martin, Antony, and Peck- 
sniff. (2) Four different types of unselfishness — Mary, Mark 
Tapley, Old Chuffey, and Tom Pinch. 

Debate: That the two swindles in the story (Scadder's 
Land Office and the English Insurance Company) are in- 
conceivable. 

Essays: (i) Is Mark Tapley 's character overdrawn.!^ 
(2) Changes in the characters of the book from Selfish- 
ness to Unselfishness. 

Difficulty Raised : How could Tom Pinch go so long un- 
deceived in Pecksniff.? 

*' Elsie Venner. " Points to be noted (suggested by T. 
L. Brunton) — (i) Note the effect of inherited tendencies on 
the actions of individuals. (2) The effect of accidental cir- 
cumstances (e.g., disease affecting a parent) on the charac- 
ter of the offspring. 

Debate: How far was Bernard Langdon justified in pun- 
ishing Abner Briggs and his dog, considering that they were 
both acting according to their natures, which they had partly 
inherited from their ancestors, and which were partly de- 
veloped by the circumstances in which they were brought up ? 

Essay: How far is the character of Elsie Venner to be 
regarded as a description of fact } and how far as a parable ? 

* * Jane Eyre. ' ' Points to be noted (suggested by Dr. 
A. S. Percival) — (i) The book is neither artistic nor realistic, 
yet it possesses an engrossing interest. On what does the 
interest depend ? (2) The characters : Jane Eyre, a woman 
of little human sympathy, upright by rule rather than from 
any impulsive love of right. Note the vulgarity of her dis- 
trust of Rochester during her engagement. Rochester, a 



STUDY OF THE NOVEL 63 

woman's false type of manliness. He has a certain nobility, 
though his roughness and coarseness detract from the strength 
of his character. St. John Rivers, a selfish prig; his up- 
rightness based purely on hope of future reward. 

Debate: Can Rochester's conduct to Jane Eyre be justi- 
fied ? 

Essay: The character of the author as revealed in the 
book. 



HOW TO STUDY 



Reading Clubs for Women 

By CHARLES F. RICHARDSON 

SOME helpful hints on social literary work for women — 
hints which apply, for the most part, equally well to 
men, or to the literary clubs composed of both sexes — may 
well be reprinted here, from '' The Christian Union," in lieu 
of further words of my own. '' In every community, ' ' says 
that journal, ''there are intelligent women, with consider- 
able leisure at their command, who have a desire to be help- 
ful, and in the same community there is a class of young 
women who need intellectual stimulus and guidance. How 
shall the two be brought together so that the supply shall 
meet the demand ? Newspapers, magazines, and public 
libraries all serve an admirable purpose in the intellectual 
life of the community, but they are not sufficient. What 
is needed is personal influence and power, and this is just 
the element which intelligent women are able to supply. 
Almost every village, certainly every larger town, contains 
a number of recent graduates from high schools and semi- 
naries, who are not able, for one reason or another, to com- 
plete their school education by a full college course. Now 
to girls of this class a woman of tact and intelligence can 
render the greatest possible service by helping them to pre- 
serve the habits of study they have already formed, to keep 
alive the intellectual interest and curiosity that have been 
awakened in them, and by giving them just that impulse 
which shall keep them drinking continually at the running 

64 



READING CLUBS FOR WOMEN 65 

streams of knowledge. The training of the best schools 
fails unless it emphasizes the importance of continual and 
systematic study as the habit of a lifetime, but it is just this 
which large numbers of bright and promising graduates from 
the higher schools fail to carry away with them. They go 
home from their last term with a latent desire for fuller 
knowledge, but that desire is not strong enough to carry 
them through the interruptions home life brings to a regular 
course of study, and what they need is an impulse from with- 
out, and the guidance of some mature and trained mind. 
Any intelligent woman can find a noble work for herself by 
opening her doors to girls of this class, and providing in her 
home a kind of post-graduate course for them. No study 
and no teaching is so delightful as that which is full of the 
element of personality, in which teacher and scholars meet 
on a social basis, and as friends mutually interested in the 
same work, in which the methods are entirely informal and 
conversational, and the result the largest and freest discus- 
sion of the subject. An experiment of this kind need not 
be a heavy task on the teacher either in time or effort. A 
class may be formed which shall meet for an hour once or 
twice a week, taking any subject for study that has vital con- 
nection with life. Nothing could be more stimulating and 
interesting, for instance, than a study of the age of Pericles 
in Greek history, taking Curtius as a historical basis, and 
reading in connection an account of the Greek poets of that 
period, ... to which may be profitably added 
discussions on the Grecian art of the day, and chapters 
from such books as Mahaffy's "Social Life among the 
Greeks. ' ' Half a dozen other historical epochs are quite 
as interesting and fruitful; that of Louis XIV., for in- 
stance, in French history; that of Elizabeth in English 
history, the richest and most fascinating epoch in the de- 
velopment of the English race. No subject will be more 
entertaining in itself or open up so many paths of private 
reading and study as English literature. An excellent plan 
would be to take Stopford Brooke's "■ Primer of English Lit- 
erature " as a connecting thread of study, and with it as a 



m READING CLUBS FOR WOMEN 

guide to make the grand tour of English literature, taking 
each great author in his turn and making such study of his 
life and work as would be within the power of an ordinarily 
intelligent person. Different authors may be assigned to 
different members of the class, who shall specially study up 
and give account of them, so that the principal facts of their 
lives, the special qualities of their work, and the particular 
impulse which they imparted to their age may be made the 
possession of the whole class. Then there is the great field 
of art, which by the aid of the admirable text-books now 
being published may be intelligently and profitably traversed 
by those who have no opportunities for technical knowledge, 
but who desire to know art in its historical aspects, and to 
be able by knowledge of its historical development to under- 
stand the school of the present day. These hints will sug- 
gest a m.ultiplicity of topics that might with the utmost 
profit be studied in this way. Every woman who desires to 
make the experiment can easily settle the question of what 
subject she shall take, by consulting her own culture, her 
own tastes, and the needs of those whom she wishes to help. 
The special knowledge to be imparted is not of so much 
value as the habit of study, which is to be strengthened and 
made continuous in the life of the student." 

In the formation of classes like those indicated above — 
in which reading aloud must of course play a large part — 
or of Shakespeare clubs, or social literary organizations in 
general, two things should never be forgotten; that almost 
any kind of a beginning is better than none ; and that the 
constitution and by-laws of the society, if it is deemed nec- 
essary to have any, should be of the simplest character pos- 
sible. 

Edward Everett Hale says that, in his experience as a 
parish minister, he looks back on the work which the read- 
ing-classes have done with him, with more satisfaction than 
on any other organized effort in which he has shared for the 
education of the young. His most important hints for the 
management of such classes are as follows : 

*' It seems desirable that a class shall be of such a size that 



READING CLUBS FOR WOMEN 67 

free conversation may be easy. If the number exceeds 
thirty, the members hardly become intimate with each other, 
and there is a certain shyness about speaking out in meet- 
ing. The size of the room has some effect in this matter. 

' ' I think that in the choice of the subject the range may 
easily be too large. It seems desirable that the members of 
the class shall know at the beginning what their winter's 
work is to be so specifically that they can adjust to it their 
general readings. Even the choice of novels for relaxation, 
or the selection of what they will read and what they will 
not, in newspapers, magazines, and reviews, depends on 
this first choice of subject. The leader of the class should 
give a good deal of time to preparation. The more he 
knows, the better of course; but all that is absolutely nec- 
essary is that he shall keep a little in advance of the class 
and shall be willing to work and read. A true man or 
woman will, of course, confess ignorance frankly. I should 
rather have in a leader good practical knowledge of books 
of reference and the way to use public libraries than large 
specific knowledge of the subject in hand. Of course it 
would be better to have both. And I think a class is wise 
in leaving to its leader the selection of the topic. Granting 
these preliminaries, I should urge, and almost insist, that 
no one should attend the class who would not promise to 
attend to the end. Nothing is so ruinous as the presence of 
the virgins who have no oil in their vessels, and are in the 
outer darlmess before the course is half done. I think it is 
well to agree in the beginning on a small fee — a dollar, or 
half a dollar — which can be expended in books of reference, 
or supper, or charity, or anything else desirable. The real 
object of the fee is weeding out unreliable members. 

** Every member should have a note-book and pencil, 
and those who do not take notes should be expelled. What 
is heard at such classes, with no memorandum to connect it 
with after work, goes in at one ear and out at the other. 

** To make sure that each member takes notes, it is well 
to keep one class journal. At the end of each meeting 
assign the making up of this journal to some one of the class. 



68 READING CLUBS FOR WOMEN 

selected by accident. The length of this journal should be 
limited — say to a single page of a writing-book. Otherwise 
the ambitious members vie with each other in making them 
long, which is in no way desirable. All you want is the 
merest brief of the work done at each meeting. 

* * The leader will very soon get a knowledge of what 
the different members of the class can and will do. Indeed, 
the consideration of what they want to do will become an 
important part of his arrangements. He should remember 
that they are all volunteers, that it is no business of his to 
drive up a particular laggard to his work, but rather to make 
the class as profitable as he can for all. ' * 



WHY TO STUDY 



Five Evidences of an Education 

By NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER * 

*' TF you had had children, sir," said Boswell, ** would 
-L you have taught them anything ?" *' I hope," re- 
plied Dr. Johnson, "that I should have willingly lived on 
bread and water to obtain instruction for them ; but I would 
not have set their future friendship to hazard for the sake 
of thrusting into their heads knowledge of things for which 
they might not perhaps have either taste or necessity. You 
teach your daughters the diameters of the planets, and won- 
der when you have done that they do not delight in your 
company." From which it appears that Dr. Johnson, by 
a sort of prolepsis, was moved to contribute to the discus- 
sion of one of the vexed questions of our time. Who is the 
educated man? By what signs shall we know him? 

''In the first golden age of the world," Erasmus ob- 
serves, in his ''Praise of Folly," " there was no need of 
these perplexities. There was then no other sort of learn- 
ing but what was naturally collected from every man's com- 
mon-sense, improved by an easy experience. What use 
could there have been of grammar, when all men spoke the 
same mother-tongue, and aimed at no higher pitch of ora- 
tory than barely to be understood by each other? What 
need of logic, when they were too \\qse to enter into any 
dispute? Or what occasion for rhetoric, where no difference 
arose to require any laborious decision? ' ' Surely, in con- 

* President of Columbia University. 

69 



70 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 

trasting this picture of a far-off golden age with our present- 
day strenuous age of steel, we must be moved to say, with 
the Preacher, ** in much wisdom is much grief; and he that 
increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." 

It is only two hundred and fifty years ago that Comenius 
urged, with ardent zeal, the establishment in London of a 
college of learned men who should bring together in one 
book the sum total of human wisdom, so expressed as to 
meet the needs of both the present and all future genera- 
tions. This scheme for a Pansophia, or repository of all 
learning, proved very attractive in the seventeenth century, 
for it easily adjusted itself to the notions of a period which 
looked upon learning as a substantial and measurable quan- 
tity, to be acquired and possessed. Unfortunately this quan- 
titative ideal of education, with its resultant processes and 
standards, is still widely influential, and it tempts us to seek 
the evidences of an education in the number of languages 
learned, in the variety of sciences studied, and generally in 
the quantity of facts held in the memory reserve. But, on 
the other hand, any serious attempt to apply quantitative 
standards to the determination of education quickly betrays 
their inadequacy and their false assumptions. If to be edu- 
cated means to know nature in systematic fashion and to be 
able to interpret it, then nearly every man of letters, ancient 
or modern, must be classed with the uneducated. Or if to 
be educated m.eans to have sympathetic, almost affectionate, 
insight into the great masterpieces of art and of literature, 
then innumerable great men of action, who have fully rep- 
resented the ideals and the power of their time and who 
manifested most admirable qualities of mind and of character, 
were uneducated. The case is even worse to-day. A host 
of knowledges compass us about on every side and bewilder 
by their variety and their interest. We must exclude the 
many to choose the one. The penalty of choice is depriva- 
tion; the price of not choosing is shallowness and incapacity. 
The quantitative method of estimating education breaks 
down, then, of its own weight. A true standard is to be 
sought in some other direction. 



EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 71 

A full analysis of the facts of life as they confront us to- 
day would show, I feel confident, that all knowledges and 
all influences are not on a single plane of indifference toward 
the human mind that would be educated. All parts of the 
spiritual machine are not mutually interchangeable. There 
are needs to be met and longings to be satisfied that will 
not accept any vicarious response to their demands. The 
scientific, the literary, the aesthetic, the institutional, and 
the religious aspects of life and of civilization, while inter- 
dependent, are yet independent of each other, in the sense 
that no one of them can be reduced to a function of another 
or can be stated in terms of another. Therefore each of 
these five aspects must, I think, be represented in some de- 
gree in every scheme of training which has education for its 
end. Nevertheless this training when it arrives at educa- 
tion will not suffer itself to be measured and estimated quan- 
titatively in terms either of science, of letters, of art, of 
institutions, or of religion. It will have produced certain 
traits of intellect and of character which find expression in 
ways open to the observation of all men, and it is toward 
these traits or habits, not toward external and substantial 
acquisition or accomplishment, that one must turn to find 
the true and sure evidences of an education, as education is 
conceived to-day. 

First among the evidences of an education I name 
correctness and precision in the use of the mother-tongue. 
Important as this power is, and is admitted to be, it is 
a comparatively new thing in education. The modern 
European languages took on educational significance only 
when the decentralization of culture began at the close of 
the Middle Ages. So late as i 549 Jacques de Bellay sup- 
ported the study of French with the very mild assertion that 
it is '' not so poor a tongue as many think it. ' ' Mulcaster, 
writing a little later, found it necessary to tell why his book 
on education was put in English rather than in Latin, and 
to defend the vernacular when he referred to its educational 
usefulness. Melanchthon put German in a class with Greek 
and Hebrew, and contrasted all three unfavorably with 



72 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 

Latin. Indeed it was not until the present German Em- 
peror plainly told the Berlin School Conference of 1890 that 
a national basis was lacking in German education; that the 
foundation of the gymnasium course of study must be Ger- 
man ; that the duty of the schoolmasters was to train the 
young to become Germans, not Greeks and Romans, and 
that the German language must be made the center around 
which all other subjects revolved, that a revision of the 
official school program was brought about that made place 
for the really serious study of the German language and lit- 
erature. And to-day, where the influence of the English 
universities and of not a few American colleges is potent, 
the study of English is slight and insignificant indeed. The 
superstition that the best gate to English is through the 
Latin is anything but dead. 

But for the great mass of the people the vernacular is 
not only the established medium of instruction, but, fortu- 
nately, also an important subject of study. A chief measure 
of educational accomplishment is the ease, the correct- 
ness, and the precision with which one uses this instru- 
ment. 

It is no disrespect to the splendid literatures which are 
embodied in the French and the German tongues, and no 
lack of appreciation of the services of those great peoples 
to civilization and to culture, to point out that of modern 
languages the English is easily the first and the most pow- 
erful, for "it is the greatest instrument of communication 
that is now in use among men upon the earth." It is the 
speech of an aggressive people among whom individual lib- 
erty and personal initiative are highly prized. It falls short, 
no doubt, of the philosophical pliability of the Greek and 
of the scientific ductility of the German ; but what is there 
in the whole field of human passion and human action that 
it cannot express with freedom and with a power all its 
own.!^ Turn '' Othello " into German or compare the verse 
of Shelley or of Keats with the graceful lines of some of their 
French contemporaries, and learn the peculiar power of the 
English speech. In simple word or sonorous phrase it is 



EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 73 

unequaled as a medium to reveal the thoughts, the feeUngs, 
and the ideals of humanity. 

One's hold upon the English tongue is measured by his 
choice of words and by his use of idiom. The composite 
character of modern English offers a wide field for apt and 
happy choice of expression. The educated man, at home 
with his mother-tongue, moves easily about in its Saxon, 
Romanic, and Latin elements, and has gained by long ex- 
perience and wide reading a knowledge of the mental inci- 
dence of words as well as of their artistic effect. He is 
hampered by no set formulas, but manifests in his speech, 
spoken, and written, the characteristic powers and appreci- 
ation of his nature. The educated man is of necessity, 
therefore, a constant reader of the best written English. 
He reads not for conscious imitation, but for unconscious 
absorption and reflection. He knows the wide distinction 
between correct English on the one hand, and pedantic, or 
as it is sometimes called, '♦ elegant," English on the other. 
He is more likely to *'go to bed " than to ''retire," to 
' * get up ' ' than to ' ' arise, ' ' to have ' ' legs ' ' rather than 
''limbs," to "dress" than to "clothe himself," and to 
"make a speech" rather than to "deliver an oration." 
He knows that ' ' if you hear poor English and read poor 
English you will pretty surely speak poor English and write 
poor English," and governs himself accordingly. He 
realizes the power and place of idiom and its relation to 
grammar, and shows his skill by preserving a balance be- 
tween the two in his style. He would follow with intelli- 
gent sympathy the scholarly discussions of idiom and of 
grammar by Professor Earle and would find therein the justi- 
fication of much of his best practice. In short, in his use 
of his mother-tongue he would give sure evidence of an edu- 
cation. 

As a second evidence of an education I name those re- 
fined and gentle manners which are the expression of fixed 
habits of thought and of action. "Manners are behavior 
and good breeding," as Addison said, but they are more. 
It is not without significance that the Latin language has 



74 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 

but a single word {inores) both for usages, habits, manners, 
and for morals. Real manners, the manners of a truly edu- 
cated man or woman, are an outward expression of intel- 
lectual and moral conviction. Sham manners are a veneer 
which falls away at the dampening touch of the first selfish 
suggestion. Manners have a moral significance, and find 
their basis in that true and deepest self-respect which is built 
upon respect for others. An infallible test of character is to 
be found in one's manners toward those whom, for one 
reason or another, the world may deem his inferiors. A 
man's manners toward his equals or his superiors are shaped 
by too many motives to render their interpretation either 
easy or certain. Manners do not make the man, but man- 
ners reveal the man. It is by the amount of respect, defer- 
ence, and courtesy shown to human personality as such that 
we judge whether one is on dress parade or whether he is 
so well-trained, well-educated, and so habitually ethical in 
thought and action that he realizes his proper relation to his 
fellows and reveals his realization in his manners. As Kant 
insisted more than a century ago, a man exists as an end in 
himself and not merely as a means to be arbitrarily used by 
this or that will ; and in all his actions, whether they con- 
cern himself alone or other rational beings, he must always 
be regarded as an end. True manners are based upon a 
recognition of this fact, and that is a poor education indeed 
which fails to inculcate the ethical principle and the manners 
that embody it. 

As a third evidence of an education I name the power 
and habit of reflection. It is a frequent charge against us 
moderns, particularly against Americans, that we are losing 
the habit of reflection and the high qualities which depend 
upon it. We are told that this loss is a necessary result of 
our hurried and busy lives, of our diverse interests, and of 
the annihilation of space and time by steam and electricity. 
The whole world and its happenings are brought to our 
very doors by the daily newspaper. Our attention leaps 
from Manila to Pekin, from Pekin to the Transvaal, and 
from the Transvaal to Havana. We are torn by conflicting 



EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 75 

or unconnected emotions, and our minds are occupied by 
ideas following each other with such rapidity that we fail to 
get a firm and deep hold of any one of the great facts that 
come into our lives. This is the charge which even sym- 
pathetic critics bring against us. 

If it be true — and there are some counts in the indict- 
ment which it is difficult to deny— then one of the most 
precious evidences of an education is slipping from us, and 
we must redouble our efforts to keep fast hold upon it. For 
an unexamined life, as Socrates unceasingly insisted, is not 
worth living. The life which asks no questions of itself, 
which traces events back to no causes and forward to no 
purposes, which raises no vital issues of principle, and which 
seeks no interpretation of what passes within and without, is 
not a human life at all; it is the life of an animal. The 
trained and the untrained mind are perhaps in sharpest con- 
trast at this very point. An armory of insights and convic- 
tions always ready for applications to new conditions, and 
invincible save by deeper insights and more rational convic- 
tions, is a mark of a trained and educated mind. The edu- 
cated man has standards of truth, of human experience, and of 
wisdom, by which new proposals are judged. These stand- 
ards can be gained only through reflection. The undisci- 
plined mind is a prey to every passing fancy and the victim 
of every plausible doctrinaire. He has no permanent forms 
of judgment which give him character. 

Renan was right when he held that the first condition for 
the development of the mind is that it shall have liberty; 
and liberty for the mind means freedom from the control of 
the unreasonable, and freedom to choose the reasonable in 
accordance with principle. A body of principles is a neces- 
sary possession of the educated man. His development is 
always with reference to his principles, and proceeds by 
evolution, not revolution. 

Philosophy is, of course, the great single study by which 
the power of reflection is developed until it becomes a habit, 
but there is a philosophic study of literature, of politics, of 
natural science, which makes for the same end. The ques- 



76 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 

tion how, whose answer is science, and the question why, 
whoee answer is philosophy, are the beginnings of reflection. 
A truly educated man asks both questions continually, and 
as a result is habituated to reflection. 

As a fourth evidence of an education I name the power 
of growth. There is a type of mind which, when trained to 
a certain point, crystallizes, as it were, and refuses to move 
forward thereafter. This type of mind fails to give one of 
the essential evidences of an education. It has perhaps ac- 
quired much and promised much ; but somehow or other the 
promise is not fulfilled. It is not dead, but in a trance. 
Only such functions are performed as serve to keep it where 
it is ; there is no movement, no development, no new power 
or accomplishment. The impulse to continuous study, and 
to that self-education which are the conditions of permanent 
intellectual growth, is wanting. Education has so far failed 
of one of its chief purposes. 

A human mind continuing to grow and to develop 
throughout a long life is a splendid and impressive sight. 
It was that characteristic in Mr. Gladstone which made his 
personality so attractive to young and ambitious men. They 
were fired by his zeal and inspired by his limitless intel- 
lectual energy. To have passed from being **the rising 
hope of the stern and unbending Tories "in 1838 to the 
unchallenged leadership of the anti-Tory party in Great 
Britain a generation later, and to have continued to grow 
throughout an exceptionally long life, is no mean distinc- 
tion ; and it is an example of what, in less conspicuous ways, 
is the lot of every mind whose training is effective. Broad- 
ened views, widened sympathies, deepened insights, are the 
accompaniments of growth. 

For this growth a many-sided interest is necessary, and 
this is why growth and intellectual and moral narrowness 
are eternally at war. There is much in our modern educa- 
tion which is uneducational because it makes growth diffi- 
cult, if not impossible. Early specialization, with its at- 
tendant limited range both of information and of interest, is 
an enemy of growth. Turning from the distasteful before it 



EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 77 

is understood is an enemy of growth. Failure to see the 
relation of the subject of one's special interest to other sub- 
jects is an enemy of growth. The pretense of investigation 
and discovery before mastering existent knowledge is an 
enemy of growth. The habit of cynical indifference toward 
men and things and of aloofness from them, sometimes sup- 
posed to be peculiarly academic, is an enemy of growth. 
These, then, are all to be shunned while formal education 
is going on, if it is to carry with it the priceless gift of an 
impulse to continuous growth. ** Life," says Bishop Spald- 
ing in an eloquent passage, '' is the unfolding of a mysteri- 
ous power, which in man rises to self-consciousness, and 
through self-consciousness to the knowledge of a world of 
truth and order and love, where action may no longer be 
left wholly to the sway of matter or to the impulse of in- 
stinct, but may and should be controlled by reason and con- 
science. To further this process by deliberate and intelli- 
gent effort is to educate" — and, I add, to educate so as to 
sow the seed of continuous growth, intellectual and moral. 

And as a fifth evidence of an education I name effi- 
ciency, the power to do. The time has long since gone 
by, if it ever was, when contemplation pure and simple, 
withdrawal from the world and its activities, or intelligent 
incompetence was a defensible ideal of education. To-day 
the truly educated man must be, in some sense, efficient. 
With brain, tongue, or hand he must be able to express his 
knowledge and so leave the world other than he found it. 
Mr. James is simply summing up what physiology and psy- 
chology both teach when he exclaims : ' ' No reception with- 
out reaction, no impression without correlative expression 
— this is the great maxim which the teacher ought never to 
forget. An impression which simply flows in at the pupil's 
eyes or ears, and in no way modifies his active life, is an 
impression gone to waste. It is physiologically incomplete. 
It leaves no fruits behind it in the way of capacity acquired. 
Even as mere impression it fails to produce its proper 
effect upon the memory; for, to remain fully among the ac- 
quisitions of the latter faculty, it must be wrought into the 



78 EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 

whole cycle of our operations. Its motor consequences are 
what clinch it. ' ' This is just as true of knowledge in gen- 
eral as of impressions. Indefinite absorption without pro- 
duction is fatal both to character and to the highest intellectual 
power. Do something and be able to do it well; express 
what you know in some helpful and substantial form ; pro- 
duce, and do not everlastingly feel only and revel in feel- 
ings — these are counsels which make for a real education 
and against that sham form of it which is easily recognized 
as well-informed incapacity. Our colleges and universities 
abound in false notions, notions as unscientific as they are 
unphilosophical, of the supposed value of knowledge, in- 
formation, for its own sake. It has none. The date of the 
discovery of America is in itself as meaningless as the date 
of the birth of the youngest blade of grass in the neighboring 
field; it means something because it is part of a larger 
knowledge-whole, because it has relations, applications, 
uses ; and for the student who sees none of these and knows 
none of them, America was discovered in 1249 quite as 
much as it was in 1492. 

High efficiency is primarily an intellectual affair, and 
only longo' intervallo does it take on anything approaching 
a mechanical form. Its mechanical form is always wholly 
subordinate to its springs in the intellect. It is the out- 
growth of an established and habitual relationship between 
intellect and will, by means of which knowledge is con- 
stantly made power. For knowledge is not power, Bacon 
to the contrary notwithstanding, unless it is made so, and it 
can be made so only by him who possesses the knowledge. 
The habit of making knowledge power is efficiency. With- 
out it education is incomplete. 

These five characteristics, then, I offer as evidences of 
an education — correctness and precision in the use of the 
mother-tongue ; refined and gentle manners, which are the 
expression of fixed habits of thought and action ; the power 
and habit of reflection ; the power of growth ; and efficiency, 
or the power to do. On this plane the physicist may meet 



EVIDENCES OF EDUCATION 79 

with the philologian and the naturalist with the philosopher, 
and each recognize the fact that his fellow is an educated 
man, though the range of their information is widely differ- 
ent and the centers of their highest interests are far apart. 
They are knit together in a brotherhood by the close tie of 
those traits which have sprung out of the reaction of their 
minds and wills upon that which has fed them and brought 
them strength. Without these traits men are not truly edu- 
cated and their erudition, however vast, is of no avail; it 
furnishes a museum, not a developed human being. 

It is these habits, of necessity made by ourselves alone, 
begun in the days of school and college, and strengthened 
with maturer years and broader experience, that serve to 
show to ourselves and to others that we have discovered 
the secret of gaining an education. 



HOW TO READ 



How to Read 

By EDWARD EVERETT HALE 

FOR reading, the first rules, I think, are: Do not read 
too much at a time; stop when you are tired; and, in 
whatever way, make some review of what you read, even as 
you go along. 

Capel Lofift says, in quite an interesting book, which 
plays about the surface of things without going very deep, 
which he calls "Self-Formation," that his whole life was 
changed, and indeed saved, when he learned that he must 
turn back at the end of each sentence, ask himself what it 
meant, if he believed it or disbelieved it, and, so to speak, 
that he must pack it away as part of his mental furniture 
before he took in another sentence. That is just as a dentist 
jams one little bit of gold-foil home, and then another, and 
then another. He does not put one large wad on the hol- 
low tooth, and then crowd it in all at once. Capel Lofft 
says that this re-flection — going forward as a serpent does, 
by a series of backward bends over the line — will make a 
dull book entertaining, and will make the reader master of 
every book he reads, through all time. For my part, I 
think this is cutting it rather fine, this chopping the book up 
into separate bits. I had rather read as one of my wisest 
counselors did; he read, say a page, or a paragraph of a 
page or two, more or less ; then he would look across at th'^ 
wall, and consider the author's statement, and fix it on his 

80 



HOW TO READ 81 

mind, and then read on. I do not do this, however. I read 
half an hour or an hour, till I am ready, perhaps, to put the 
book by. Then I examine myself. What has this amounted 
to.^ What does he say.-* What does he prove. ^ Does he 
prove it.!* What is there new in it.-* Where did he get it? 
If it is necessary in such an examination, you can go back 
over the passage, correct your first impression, if it is 
wrong, find out the meaning that the writer has carelessly 
concealed, and such a process makes it certain that you your- 
self will remember his thought or his statement. 

I can remember, I think, everything I saw in Europe 
which was worth seeing, if I saw it twice. But there was 
many a wonder which I was taken to see in the whirl of 
sight-seeing, of which I have no memory, and of which I 
cannot force any recollection. I remember that at Malines 
— what we call Mechlin — our train stopped nearly an hour. 
At the station a crowd of guides were shouting that there 

was time to go and see Rubens 's picture of , at the 

church of . This seemed to us a droll contrast to the 

cry at our stations, *' Fifteen minutes for refreshments!" It 
offered such aesthetic refreshment in place of carnal oysters 
that purely for the frolic we went to see. We were hurried 
across some sort of square into the church, saw the picture, 
admired it, came away, and forgot it — clear and clean forgot 
it! My dear Laura, I do not know what it was about any 
more than you do. But if I had gone to that church the 
next day, and had seen it again, I should have fixed it for- 
ever on my memory. Moral: Renew your acquaintance 
with whatever you want to remember. I think Ingham says 
somewhere that it is the slight difference between the two 
stereoscopic pictures which gives to them, when one overlies 
the other, their relief and distinctness. If he does not say 
it, I will say it for him now. 

I think it makes no difference how you make this mental 
review of the author, but I do think it essential that, as you 
pass fi-om one division of his work to another, you should 
make it somehow. 

Another good rule for memory is indispensable, I think. 



82 HOW TO READ 

— namely, to read with a pencil in hand. If the book is 
your own, you had better make what I may call your own 
index to it on the hard white page which lines the cover at 
the end. That is, you can write down there just a hint of 
the things you will be apt to like to see again, noting the 
page on which they are. If the book is not your own, do 
this on a little slip of paper, which you may keep separately. 
These memoranda will be, of course, of all sorts of things. 
Thus they will be facts which you want to know, or funny 
stories which you think will amuse some one, or opinions 
which you may have a doubt about. Suppose you had got 
hold of that very rare book, Veragas's ** History of the 
Pacific Ocean and its Shores ' ' ; here might be your private 
index at the end of the first volume : 

Percentage of salt in water, ii; Gov. Revillagigedo, 19; 
Caciques and potatoes, 23; Lime-water for scurvy, 29; 
Enata, Kanaka, 42 ; Magelhaens vs. Wilkes, 57 ; Coral 
insects, 72; Gigantic ferns, 84, etc., etc., etc. 

Very likely you may never need one of these references ; 
but if you do, it is certain that you will have no time to 
waste in hunting for them. Make your memorandum, and 
you are sure. 

Bear in mind all along that each book will suggest other 
books which you are to read sooner or later. In your mem- 
oranda note with care the authors who are referred to of 
whom you know little or nothing, if you think you should 
like to know more, or ought to know more. Do not neg- 
lect this last condition, however. You do not make the 
memorandum to show it at the Philogabblian ; you make it 
for yourself; and it means that you yourself need this 
additional information. 

Whether to copy much from books or not.!* That is a 
question ; and the answer is : * ' That depends. ' ' If you have 
but few books, and much time and paper and ink; and if 
you are likely to have fewer books, why, nothing is nicer 
and better than to make for use in later life good extract- 
books to your own taste, and for your own purposes. But 
if you own your books, or are likely to have them at com- 



HOW TO READ 83 

mand, time is short, and the time spent in copying would 
probably be better spent in reading. There are some very 
diffusive books, difficult because diffusive, of which it is well 
to write close digests, if you are really studying them. 
When we read John Locke, for instance, in college, we had 
to make abstracts, and we used to stint ourselves to a line 
for one of his chatty sections. That was good practice for 
writing, and we remember what was in the sections to this 
hour. If you copy, make a first-rate index to your extracts. 
They sell books prepared for the purpose, but you may just 
as well make your own. 

You see I am not contemplating any very rapid or slap- 
dash work. You may try that in your novels, or books of 
amusement, if you choose, and I will not be very cross about 
it; but for the books of improvement, I want you to improve 
by reading them. Do not '* gobble " them up so that five 
years hence you shall not know whether you have read them 
or not. What I advise seems slow to you, but if you will, 
any of you, make or find two hours a day to read in this 
fashion, you will be one day accomplished men and women. 
Very few professional men, known to me, get so much time 
as that for careful and systematic reading. If any boy or 
girl wants really to know what comes of such reading, I 
wish he would read the life of my friend George Livermore, 
which our friend Charles Deane has just now written for the 
Historical Society of Massachusetts. There was a young 
man, who when he was a boy in a store began his sys- 
tematic reading. He never left active and laborious busi- 
ness; but when he died he was one of the accomplished 
historical scholars of America. He had no superior in his 
special lines of study; he was a recognized authority and 
leader among men who had given their lives to scholar- 
ship. 

I have not room to copy it here, but I wish any of you 
would turn to a letter of Frederick Robertson's near the end 
of the second volume of his letters, where he speaks of this 
very matter. He says he read, when he was at Oxford, 
but sixteen books with his tutors. But he read them so 



84 HOW TO READ 

that they became a part of himself, '*as the iron enters a 
man's blood. ' ' And they were books by sixteen of the men 
who have been leaders of the world. No bad thing to 
have in your blood and brain and bone the vitalizing ele- 
ment that was in the lives of such men. 



THE STUDY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE 

By various AUTHORS 



The following suggestions and observations are taken from 
The Merchant oj Venice, edited by Homer B. Sprague, and 
published by Silver, Burdett& Company. 

[From J. M. Buchan, Inspector of High Schools, Ontario, 

Canada.] 



w 



ITH all classes of pupils ahke^ the main thing to be aimed 
. , at by the teacher is to lead them clearly and fully to 
understand the meaning of the author they are reading, and to 
appreciate the beauty, the nobleness, the justness, or the sub- 
limity of his thoughts and language. Parsing, the analysis of 
sentences, the derivation of words, the explanation of allusions, 
the scansion of verse, the pointing-out of figures of speech, 
the hundred and one minor matters on which the teacher may 
easily dissipate the attention of the pupil, should be strictly 

subordinated to this great aim It is essential that the 

mind of the reader should be put en rapport with that of the 
writer. There is something in the influence of a great soul 
upon another, which defies analysis. No analysis of a poem 
however subtle, can produce the same effect upon the mind 
and heart as the reading of the poem itself. 

Though the works of Shakespeare and Milton and our 
other great writers were not intended by their authors to serve 
as text-books for future generations, yet it is unquestionably 
the case that a large amount of information may be imparted 
and a very valuable training given, if we deal with them^ as 
we deal with Homer and Horace in our best schools. Parsing, 

85 



86 STUDY OF LITERATURE 

grammatical analysis, the derivation of words, prosody, com- 
position, the history of the language, and to a certain extent 
the history of the race, may be both more pleasantly and more 
profitably taught in this than in any other way. It is ad- 
visable for these reasons, also, that the study of these subjects 
should be conjoined with that of the English hterature. Not 
only may time be thus economized, but the difficulty of fixing 
the attention of flighty and inappreciative pupils may more 
easily be overcome. 

[From F. G. Fleay's ^^ Guide to Chaucer and Spenser.''] 

No doubtful critical point should ever be set before the 
student as ascertained. One great advantage of these studies 
is the acquirement of a power of forming a judgment in cases 
of conflicting evidence. Give the student the evidence; state 
your own opinion, if you like, but let him judge for himself. 

No extracts or incomplete works should be used. The 
capabihty of appreciating a whole work, as a whole, is one of 
the principal aims in aesthetic culture. 

It is better to read thoroughly one simple play or poem 
than to know details about all the dramatists and poets. The 
former trains the brain to judge of other plays or poems; the 
latter only loads the memory with details that can at any time 
be found, when required, in books of reference. 

For these studies to completely succeed, they must be as 
thorough as our classical studies used to be. No difficult 
point in syntax, prosody, accidence, or pronunciation; no 
variation in manners or customs; no historical or geographical 
allusions,— must be passed over without explanation. This 
training in exactness will not interfere with, but aid, the higher 
aims of literary training. 

{From Dr. Johnson. 1765. J 

Let him that is yet unacquainted with the powers of Shake- 
speare, and who desires to feel the greatest pleasure that the 
drama can give, read every play, from the first scene to the last, 
with utter negHgence to all his commentators. When his fancy 



STUDY OF LITERATURE 87 

is once on the wing, let it not stoop at correction or explanation. 
Let him read on through brightness and obscurity, through 
integrity and corruption; let him preserve his comprehension 
of the dialogue, and his interest in the fable. And when the 
pleasures of novelty have ceased, let him attempt exactness, 
and read the commentators. 



[From Professor Brainerd Kellogg.] 

The student ought, first of all, to read the play as a pleasure; 
then to read over again, with his mind upon the characters and 
the plot; and, lastly, to read it for the meanings, grammar, etc. 

1. The Plot and Story of the Play. 

(a) The general plot ; 
(6) The special incidents. 

2. The Characters: Ability to give a connected account of 

all that is done and most of what is said by each char- 
acter in the play. 

3. The Influence and Interplay of the Characters upon 

Each Other. 

(a) Relation of A to B, and of B to A; 

(b) Relation of A to C and D. 

4. Complete Possession of the Language. 

(a) Meanings of words; 

(b) Use of old words, or of words in an old meaning; 

(c) Grammar; 

(d) Ability to quote lines to illustrate a grammatical 

point. 

5. Power to Reproduce, or Quote. 

(a) What was said by A or B on a particular occasion; 

(b) What was said by A in reply to B ; 

(c) W^hat argument was used by C at a particular 

juncture; 

(d) To quote a line in instance of an idiom or of a 

peculiar meaning. 



88 STUDY OF LITERATURE 

6. Power to Locate. 

(a) To attribute a line or statement to a certain person 

on a certain occasion; 

(b) To cap a line ; 

(c) To fill in the right word or epithet. 

[From BlaisdelVs ''Outlines for the Study of English Classics.''] 

The following summary of points to be exacted . . . may 
prove useful: — 

I. — Points Relative to Substance. 

1. A general knowledge of the purport of the passages, 

and line of argument pursued. 

2. An exact paraphrase of parts of the whole, pro- 

ducing exactly and at length the author's meaning. 

3. The force and character of epithets. 

4. The meaning of similes, and expansions of meta- 

phors. 

5. The exact meaning of individual words. 

II. — Points with Regard to Form. 

1. General grammar rules; if necessary, peculiarities of 

English grammar. 

2. Derivations: (i) General laws and principles of 

derivations, including a knowledge of affixes and 
suffixes. (2) Interesting historical derivation of 
particular words. 

m. — The Knowledge of all Allusions. 

IV. — A Knowledge of Such Parallel Passages and Illus- 
trations AS THE Teacher has Supplied. 

[From Professor Wm. Taylor Thom.] 

To understand Shakespeare, we must understand his medium 
of thought, his language, as thoroughly as possible. For this, 
study is necessary; and one notable advantage of the thorough 
study of this medium is that the student becomes unconsciously 



STUDY OF LITERATURE 89 

more or less imbued with Shakespeare's turn of thought while 
observing his turn of phrase. . . . 

For the class-room, a non-aesthetic, prehminary study is best. 
And this may be accomplished in the following way: By study- 
ing carefully the Text, — the words themselves and their forms; 
their philological content, so far as such content is essential to 
the thought; and the grammatical differences of usage, then and 
now; by observing accurately the point of view of life (Weltan- 
schauung) historically and otherwise, as shown in the text; by 
taking what may be called the actor's view of the personages of 
the play; and, finally, by a sober and discriminating aesthetic 
discussion of the characters, of the principles represented by 
those characters, and of the play in its. parts and as a whole. 

I. With regard to the words themselves and their jorms: 
There is no doubt that Shakespeare's words and word-com- 
binations need constant and careful explanation in order for 
the pupil to seize the thought accurately or even approximately. 
Here, as elsewhere, Coleridge's dictum remains true: *'In order 
to get the full sense of a word, we should first present to our 
minds the visual image that forms its primary meaning." . . . 

II. But this does not exhaust the interest of the words them- 
selves. They are frequently so full of a particular use and 
meaning of their own that they have evidently been chosen by 
Shakespeare on that account, and can only serve fully their 
purpose of conveying his meaning when themselves compre- 
hended. This opens up to the pupil one of the most interesting 
aspects of words — their function of embalming the ideas and 
habits of a past generation, thus giving little photographic 
views, as it were, of the course of the national life. Thus, a 
new element of interest and weird reality is added when we 
find that *'And like a rat without a taiV^ is not stuffed into the 
witch-speech in Macbeth merely for rhyme's sake {Mac. I, iii, 9). 
It is doubtful if anything brings so visibly before the mind's eye 
the age, and therefore the proper point of view, of Shakespeare 
as the accurate following-out of these implied views of Hfe, these 
old popular beliefs contained in his picturesque language. . . . 

III. Difficulties consisting in the forms of words have been 
already mentioned; but they constitute in reality only a part, 



90 STUDY OF LITERATURE 

perhaps the least part, of the grammatical impediment to our 
apprehending Shakespeare clearly. There is in him a splendid 
superiority to what we call grammar which entails upon us 
more or less of close, critical observation of his word-order, if 
we would seize the very thought. Thus Lady Macbeth speaks 
of Macbeth's "flaws and starts" as ''impostors to true fear" 
(III, iv, 64). Here, if we understand " to " in its ordinary mean- 
ing, we lose entirely the fine force of its use by Shakespeare, 
''compared to true fear," and fail to see how subtly Lady Mac- 
beth is trying to persuade Macbeth that there is no cause for 
fear, that he is not truly "afeard," but merely hysterical and 
unbalanced; and, failing in that, we fail in part to realize the 
prodigious nerve and force she was herself displaying, though 
vainly, for Macbeth's sake. So, too, a few lines farther on, 
Macbeth's fine saying, "Ere humane statute purged the ge7itle 
weal," becomes finer when we see that "gentle" means for us 
"gentled," or "and made it gentle" (III, iv, 76). But for the 
apprehension of such, to us, unwonted powers in our noble 
mother tongue, we must study: work, that is the word for it. 
We appreciate Shakespeare, as we do other things, when he has 
cost us something. . . . 

IV. With such preliminary and coincident study, the pupil 
prepares herself for that wider sweep of vision called for by the 
views of life and of the universe expressed or implied by the 
dramatis personce themselves. The habit of mind thus ac- 
quired enables her to comprehend quickly the notions of God, 
of life, of creation (Weltanschauung) found in ante-protestant 
times; and she is ready to sympathize with humanity, no matter 
as to age, or race, or clime. . . . 

V. Another prolific source of the realization of Shakespeare's 
conception is obtained by suggesting the actor^s view to the pupil. 
There is much quickening of sympathy in representing to our- 
selves the look, the posture, emphasis, of the character who 
speaks. The same words have a totally different force accord- 
ing as they are pronounced; and it is like a revelation to a 
pupil sometimes to learn that a speech, or even a word, was 
uttered thus and not so. . . . 

VI. Now, all this is preliminary work and should lead up 



STUDY OF LITERATURE 91 

to the (Esthetic appreciation of Shakespeare's characters; and to 
that end, real conceptions, right or wrong, are essential. Let 
it be distinctly understood : all study of words, of grammatical 
construction, of views of life pecuhar to an age past, of bodily 
posture and gesture — all are the preparation for the study of 
the characters themselves; that is, of the play itself; that is, 
of what Mr. Hudson calls the '' Shakespeare of Shakespeare." 
If the student does not rise to this view of Shakespeare, she had 
better let Shakespeare alone and go at something else. In 
studying the lives of such men as Hamlet or Lear, and of such 
women as Lady Macbeth or Cordeha, it is of the utmost con- 
sequence that the attention of the pupil be so directed to their 
deeds and words, their expression and demonstration of feel- 
ing, — to the things, further, which they omit to say or do, — as to 
make the conception of personality as strong as possible. . . . 

For a class of boys or girls, I hold that the most effectual and 
rapid and profitable method of studying Shakespeare is for them 
to learn one play as thoroughly as their teacher can make them 
do it. Then they can read other plays with a profit and a pleas- 
ure unknown and unknowable, without such a previous drill 
and study. 

Applying now these principles, if such they can be called, 
my method of work is this. One of the plays is selected, and 
after some brief introductory matter the class begins to study. 
Each pupil reads in turn a number of lines, and then is ex- 
pected to give such explanations of the text as are to be found 
in the notes, supplemented by her own knowledge. She has 
pointed out to her such other matters also as may be of interest 
and are relevant to the text. 

When the play has been finished or when any character dis- 
appears from the play, — as Polonius in Hamlet, Duncan in 
Macbeth, the Fool in King Lear, — the class have all those pas- 
sages in the play pointed out to them wherein this character 
appears or mention is made of him; and then, with this, Shake- 
speare's, biography of him before their eyes, they are required 
to write a composition — bane of pupils, most useful of teachers' 
auxiliaries — on this character, without other aesthetic assistance 
or hints than they may have gathered from the teacher in the 



92 STUDY OF LITERATURE 

course of their study. This is to be their work, and to express 
their opinions of the man or the woman under discussion, and 
is to show how far they have succeeded in retaining their 
thoughts and impressions concerning the character, and how 
far they wish to modify them under this review. They are thus 
compelled to realize what they do and do not think; what 
they do and do not know; in how far the character does or does 
not meet their approval, and why. That is, the pupils are 
compelled to pass judgment upon themselves along with the 
Shakespeare character. . . # ■ 



OUTLINES FOR THE STUDY OF 
SHAKESPEARE. 



THE following Outlines and Suggestions for the study of 
The Merchant of Venice are based on the Booklovers 
Edition of Shakespeare, and are designed to serve as a general 
model for the study of the plays in connection with the 
''helps" contained in the Booklovers Edition. 

I. Read carefully the "Argument," following the Preface 
to the volume The Merchant oj Venice. 

II. Read the play in order to learn its plot and incidents as 
well as for the pleasure of the reading. 

HI. Read the play again for a fuller knowledge of the plot 
and acquaintance with the characters, and for a deeper ap- 
preciation of the literary charm and value of the drama. 

IV. Take up the serious study of the play, first using the 
Questions — in themselves a Study Method — at the close of the 
volume. 

(i) Consider the general questions at the beginning and 
at the end of this Study Method. 

(2) Carefully study each Act separately, using as a basis 

the Questions on each Act. 

(3) Give attention to the meaning of unusual or obsolete 

words, using the glossary. 

(4) Endeavor to ascertain the sense of difficult passages, 

using the Critical and the Explanatory Notes. 

(5) It will be seen that the Questions bring up historical, 

biographical, bibliographical, ethical, and other 
considerations. Matters of dramatic construction 
are left to the discrimination of the student or of 
the study circle. 

93 



94 STUDY OUTLINES 

(6) The use of the Questions, with their suggestive im- 

pHcations, will lead to a still more thorough study 
of the play and to a careful reading of the Pre- 
face, the Critical Comments, and the Explanatory 
Notes. The student will find in these "helps" the 
expert knowledge and the mature opinions of the 
greatest Shakespearian scholars on every important 
matter pertaining to the play. 

(7) In the Index volume will be found descriptions and 

commentaries relating to the characters. The 
student should become familiar with this Index. 

(8) The volume containing the life of Shakespeare 

should be read by all who study the plays. In 
the same volume are chapters on "Shakespeare, 
the Man," by Walter Bagehot; "Self Revelation 
of Shakespeare," by Leslie Stephen; "The EngHsh 
Drama," by Richard Grant White; and "Culmi- 
nation of the Drama in Shakespeare," by Thomas 
Spencer Baynes. A more interesting and instruc- 
tive collection of Shakespearian literature in like 
compass is not to be found. 

V. The special articles in this booklet on the study of litera- 
ture and the study of Shakespeare should be read and reread. 
Near the close of the essay by Hamilton Wright Mabie will be 
found a character analysis of The Merchant oj Venice that is 
interesting in itself and may serve as a model for a character 
analysis of other plays. 

VI. In the chapter in this booklet on the study of English 
literature will be found unique general methods for the study 
of each play. 

VII. In the Questions that accompany each play in the 
Booklovers Edition will be found suggestive subjects for essays. 

VIII. The student of any play should read it aloud — in 
whole or in part — and should memorize the choicest passages. 



Topical Index 

By means of this index any desired passage in Shakespeare, as well as all 
passages relating to any special subject, such as " Law," " Love," " Proverbs and 
Proverbial Expressions," "Woman," etc., can be readily found. This index is 
more valuable than an expensive concordance. 

Study Methods 

A carefully prepared and interesting plan of study, which gives sugges'ions 
and questions relating to each act and scene. These study methods are modeled 
upon the course of Shakespearean study pursued at the leading American and 
English universities. 

Prefaces 

Critical accounts of the sources of the plot, with descriptions of earlier and 
similar plays, discussion of the probable date of composition, and remarks on the 
first editions. The question of Shakespeare's collaborators is interestingly treated. 

Text 

The famous "Cambridge" text, which has been the standard for more than 
a generation. It is based on the folio of 1 623, the first collected edition, and has 
been regarded as the most nearly accurate and most fully intelligible text. It is 
not expurgated or changed. 

Type 

The largest and most readable that can be used without making the volumes 
too bulky for convenient handling. The impression is sharp and clear-cut, the 
type-page well proportioned, and the margin ample. 

Paper 

The very finest quality of pure white, smooth paper, manufactured expressly 
for this work ; will not discolor with age ; has a finish agreeable to the eye and 
suitable to the typography. 

Binding 

The books are faultlessly bound in half-leather style with a fine grade of red 
leather and English art cloth on the sides. The back-stamping is done in genuine 
leaf gold. The binding is most artistic and attractive, and made to withstand any 
amount of handling and hard usage. 

Illustrations 

This edition excels all others in point of illustrations. It contains 40 full-page 
colored plates, reproduced from famous paintings, which are inserted by hand. 
Heretofore illustrations like these were to be found only in the high-priced editions, 
ranging from $80 to $150 per set. Besides the color plates there are hundreds 
of text and marginal illustrations. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014157 460 7 # 




THE BEST SHAKESPEARE 



HE Booklovers Edition is founded on the Cambridge text, which is 
reproduced with only such few changes as have been made necessary 
by the results of later scholarship. To this text have been added Critical 
Notes and Comments, Arguments, Explanatory Notes, and Questions on the 
Plays. Every recognized authority on Shakespeare is 
represented in the notes and explanatory matter. The Book- 
lovers Edition, therefore, rests upon a wider consensus of Shakespearean 
knowledge than any other edition, and can be justly said to be the best 
edition of Shakespeare's works in existence. The set is 
complete in forty volumes. There are thirty-seven plays, a play to a volume; 
and the three remaining volumes contain respectively the Poems and Sonnets, 
a Life of Shakespeare, and a Topical Index. The entire set contains over 
7,ooo pages (size, 7j^x5 in.), colored frontispieces to the volumes, and more 
than 200 text illustrations. The bindings are English art cloth or half leather, 
stamped in gold. 




